You And I
by momoxtoshiro
Summary: There are all different kinds of people throughout Remnant's many countries. These are a few tales of how some of them came together, sometimes briefly, sometimes for a lifetime. [For RWBY Relationship week]. Includes RWBY, JNPR, and others.
1. Black And Ginger

**Alrighty, so let me give some quick background first. This story is a compilation of fics for what the fandom over on tumblr is calling RWBY Relationship Week. We use a name generator to select 2 characters at random and then have to write a fic or draw fanart about them. And we do this once a day every day for the entire week (I ended up doing 3 extra chapters just because). **

**So you'll see all different characters and genres in here! I had a lot of fun writing these, so I hope you enjoy them!**

**Day 1: Blake & Penny. ****[Takes place after episode 15].**

**Genres: Friendship, Hurt/Comfort. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.**

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Chapter 1. Black And Ginger

Wind whipped past Blake's face as she pelted through the buildings of downtown Vale, accelerating faster with every leap.

_What have I done? I can never go back..._

She had run off immediately after her argument with Weiss when she had accidentally revealed her identity and affiliations with the White Fang. She had heard Ruby call out after her, but she deliberately ignored her.

She did not even stop when she left Beacon's campus, nor when several passerby had shouted at her.

Never.

She never wanted to stop running.

She wanted to run until she died.

Anything would be better than having to face the cruel discrimination and the biting ridicule again.

Her chest hurt for several reasons, one being the crushing guilt that weighed down her heart when she had heard of the terrible things the White Fang had done to Weiss's family. The constant strain of running and propelling herself over rooftops did not make things any better, nor did the dizzying confusion that crashed over her head, making it pound.

She was unsure of how far she had run by now, but the chill of the night was unrelenting.

She longed to go back.

She wanted nothing more.

But she could not.

Surely they all hated her?

Her breathing became more ragged when the tears started to fall, and she bit her lip until she tasted the tang of blood.

In an effort to make a leap over an alleyway, her boot snagged on a gutter and she lost her balance, stumbling forward and crashing onto the metal covering of a dumpster. Accompanying the sound of her impact, there was a loud popping sound as pain shot up her left arm, and Blake let out a hiss.

She choked back another sob as she pushed herself up with her good arm, dropping to the ground to press her back against the unforgiving brick wall.

Head spinning, body aching, she sunk to the ground, but only managed to wallow in her agonized thoughts for a minute before she lost consciousness.

* * *

When Blake next awoke, the pain was the first thing she remembered, a dull soreness that throbbed throughout her entire body, her left arm and shoulder completely numb.

She cracked her eyes open to take in the sunlight, realizing she had fallen unconscious for the entirety of the night. Her right side was trapped by the dumpster that had damaged her, but when she tried to move to her left, something was preventing her from shifting to that side as well. Beneath her bow, her ears flattened in alarm, and her back tensed as she slowly turned her head to the side.

Two bright teal eyes stared unblinkingly back at her and Blake gasped, her body jerking back to slam against the dumpster again.

"I _knew_ it was you!" A familiar, unforgettably perky voice announced. "Blake, right? Do you remember me?"

Blake squinted up at the petite form of the peculiar girl she had met earlier yesterday, her bob-cut, ginger-colored hair swaying slightly as she tilted her head to one side.

"...Penny?" She wheezed.

"That's right!" Penny clapped. "And you're Blake, right?" She repeated her question.

"Yes..." The Faunus relaxed slightly when she realized the person beside her was probably not a threat. "What... What are you doing here?"

"My master is letting me sightsee around Vale on the days leading up to the tournament!" She stated matter-of-factly. "It's a _really_ beautiful town! And there are _so_ many amazing people!" She paused, seeming to be aware that she was about to go off on a tangent. "What are _you_ doing out here, Blake? Where are Ruby and Weiss and Yang?"

When the girl asked about Blake's former teammates, a pang ran through her chest. She let out a heavy sigh as Penny continued to give her an inquisitive look.

"Well..." Blake did not know where to begin. "We're... not exactly teammates... anymore..."

"What?!" Penny gasped loudly. "That's _terrible_! What happened?"

Blake wondered if the conversation would yield any benefits or if it would be better just to leave her. But considering Blake was not exactly in any condition to be vigorously moving about, in addition to the fact that Penny was blocking her only escape route, Blake relented; she knew that Penny would follow her until she learned everything she wanted to know.

But there was also something instinctive that told Blake the girl before her was a good person. She knew better than to go revealing her Faunus heritage to just anyone, though, therefore she made sure to approach the topic carefully.

"You see..." Blake began hesitantly. "They... They found out a secret of mine-"

"You mean that you're a Faunus?"

"What?!" Blake was so taken aback that she jumped and rammed herself against the dumpster yet again, biting back a curse. "H-How... How did you know...?" She reached her right arm up to her head, but her bow was still there.

"Uh, the cat ears?" Penny declared.

"But... my bow..."

"Bow? What bow?" Penny leaned forward to inspect her closely. "Oh! You _are_ wearing a bow! Well I always thought they were cat ears!" She laughed briefly. "I have a bow, too!" She whipped her head around quickly to show the pink ribbon tied into her hair. Then she quickly turned back to Blake. "But you _are_ a Faunus, right?"

"...Yes..." Blake did not know what else she could do but tell the truth now.

"But that's not a bad thing!" Penny's eyebrows furrowed. "So why aren't you guys teammates anymore?"

"Well... you see-"

"Just because someone's different doesn't mean you can't be friends with them!" The ginger-haired girl went on. "I mean, _everybody's_ different from everybody else. Even twins! So why is it so bad if you're just a little bit _more_ different than some other people?"

Blake felt her mouth open to reply, but no words came forth.

The way this girl said it... it was so simple, a child could understand perfectly. So why was it that well-educated adults could not see the truth in those simple words?

"I'm different, too, you know." Penny continued. "A _lot_ different from other people. And I don't have many friends. But that just means I haven't talked to the right people until now! You and Ruby and Weiss and Yang were all really nice to me yesterday! You didn't yell at me or chase me away or call me a freak! Ruby even said I was her friend!" She was beaming, and Blake was bewildered by the innocence of her smile. But that smile soon faded and she lowered her voice a little. "Have you ever been called mean words because of your ears?" Penny wondered.

Blake shrunk back for a second, but eventually managed to meet Penny's piercing gaze.

"Yes..." She admitted. "A lot of mean words."

"Then you're just like me!" Penny declared. "And you know what you have to do?" She paused, indicating that she wanted an answer.

Blake slowly shook her head from side to side, caught up in the small girl's passionate tone of voice.

Penny smiled a little as she continued excitedly. "If you've met a lot of people who have called you _mean_ things, then you've just got to keep meeting new people until you find someone who calls you _nice_ things! Haven't Ruby and Weiss and Yang ever called you nice things? Haven't they ever done nice things for you?" She wondered.

Blake remembered her first night at Beacon, when the rambunctious pair of sisters had sauntered up to her. When she forgave the fact that they had interrupted her reading, Blake remembered being flattered when Ruby asked her about the story. She remembered how Yang had been welcoming to accept Blake as her partner, working so well together with her that it felt as though they had been together forever. And Weiss...

"So..." Penny brought Blake back to the present. "Have they? Have they ever said nice things about you?" She prompted.

"Well... Ruby and Yang have been really nice to me..."

"And Weiss?"

"She... She hasn't said anything mean... about me _specifically_..." Blake realized.

"Then maybe you haven't given her the chance to say nice things yet!" Penny said this as though it was the simplest solution to the problem. "Maybe you just need to give her another chance! Did you tell her everything before you left?"

"...Not exactly..."

"Then maybe you should try that! I'm sure she'll come around once she understands everything! She _is_ your teammate, after all!"

"I..." Blake's voice trailed off.

The static that had been swarming her mind and clouding her thoughts for the past night began to dissipate. She remembered the final expression Weiss had made before Blake had ran out, clearly shocked and dismayed. _How is running away going to solve anything?_ Blake asked herself. _Is that how I deal with my problems? By running off like some frightened child?_

Having made up her mind, Blake straightened her posture. Penny noted the spark that flashed in her golden eyes and smiled.

"So are you going to go back?"

"...Yes." She decided.

"That's wonderful!" Blake could tell that Penny was genuinely delighted. She had felt a particularly soft spot for the girl before, and it continued to expand even further than it already had.

She opened her mouth to offer her gratitude, but before she could speak, Penny gasped. "Oh! But before you go, let me help you!" When she slid in close and touched Blake's injured arm, the Faunus stiffened instantly as she remembered her fall the previous night. "Sorry about this." Penny apologized as she firmly placed one hand on Blake's shoulder and the other on her arm. With a swift twist and precise tug that demonstrated the expertness of her motions, Blake's dislocated shoulder was popped back into place by a satisfied Penny.

"Ah!" Blake whimpered as a slightly pain settled in, but it lasted only a few seconds.

"Sorry!" Penny repeated.

"How... How did you do that?" Blake blinked wondrously.

"I'm combat ready!" The ginger-haired girl gave a salute. "Which means I'm also programmed to know how to treat any injury!"

"Program-"

"Now then!" Penny jumped to her feet as she offered Blake her hand. "You should go back to your team, Blake!"

As she was pulled to her feet, Blake tried to inquire about what Penny had just said, but she ultimately decided against it, assuming she had misheard.

"Right." Blake nodded determinedly.

"And I'll see you all in the tournament!" Penny beamed.

"Yes you will." Blake agreed. "And thank you, Penny. You're a good friend."

That seemed to render the talkative girl speechless for a minute.

"You... You, _too_!" She bounced up and down. "You called me friend, _too_! Oh wow, I love Vale!" Before Blake could comprehend what was happening, Penny had thrown her arms around her and pulled away again. "Thank you, Blake!" She waved energetically before skipping off down the alleyway.

Blake watched her go, feeling an odd affection for the strange girl. Once the pink ribbon had disappeared, Blake removed her own black one and slid it into her pocket.

Then, she gathered herself for a jump, and headed back to Beacon Academy.

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**A/N: If I learned anything from this, it's that I love writing Penny.**

**Please review!**


	2. Red And Velvet

**For Day 2, the names I got were Ruby & Velvet! Takes place after episode 11, I guess.**

**Genres: Friendship**

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.**

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Chapter 2. Red And Velvet

"Ruby, hurry up!" Weiss called back over her shoulder. "We're going to leave you behind."

"I'm sorry!" Ruby called after her teammates. "I left my wallet back in the room! You guys head to the cafeteria without me!" She waved her companions off. Weiss looked like she was debating following after her for a moment, but Yang grabbed her arm and pulled her along.

"Come on, let's save her a seat." She said.

Ruby gave a quick bow of apology before she dashed off back to the room. Once she had unlocked the door, she darted to her drawer to grab her wallet before rushing back out.

"Oh gosh I am sooo hungry..." She mumbled to herself.

She raced across the courtyard between the dorm building and the academic building where the cafeteria was located, but just before she reached the door, a figure caught her eye.

Halting abruptly enough to almost fall forward, Ruby scurried over to the corner of the building for cover as she peeked out into the forested area.

A girl wearing Beacon's uniform was crouched with her back to Ruby, her long, chocolate-colored hair flowing all down her back until it brushed the grass. But most notable of all were the two tall rabbit ears protruding from atop her head.

_Oh, what's her name? I know it's something pretty... _It took Ruby a minute to remember, but once she had, she called out softly. "Velvet?"

The girl before her jumped, so startled that she fell sideways, scrambling to look behind her.

"Y-Yes?" She squeaked.

"Oh no, I'm sorry!" Ruby held her hands up. "I-I didn't mean to startle you!" The sheer panic in the Faunus's wide onyx eyes made Ruby flinch. But as she realized that Ruby was not scolding her, Velvet appeared to relax a little more.

"No, no. I apologize." Velvet said in a quiet voice. "I didn't mean to be rude."

"Not at all!" Ruby slowly made her way over to her. "I just... wanted to know what you were doing out here. Aren't you going to have lunch?"

"I'm fine..." Velvet made an effort to plaster on a smile, and Ruby gave her points for that, but it was painfully obvious that this girl was not a compulsive liar.

"Are you sure?" Ruby did not want to be nosy, but she also did not like the idea of leaving her if she was struggling with some kind of problem. "Because, I can help you... if you need help." She smiled awkwardly.

Her suspicions were proven correct as she watched Velvet bite her lip, her eyes flicking from side to side nervously, looking anywhere but at Ruby, her ears trembling.

But a minute later, she deemed it hopeless to hide what she was concealing any longer. "Actually..." She whispered, motioning for Ruby to come closer.

Ruby checked to make sure no one was watching them before she squatted down beside her classmate. Velvet beckoned her to her side and Ruby peeked over her shoulder as she cleared away the leaves of a nearby bush.

Ruby let out a small "ooohh..." as she saw what Velvet had been hiding. A small bird was flapping clumsily around underneath the bush. It was frantic and kept falling forward, and when Ruby looked closer, she could see that one of its wings was bleeding.

"What happened?" Ruby frowned, feeling a whimper in her voice.

"I..." Velvet let out a sigh as she resolved herself to tell the story. "I was on my way to lunch w-when I saw... some boys. They were throwing stones at it..." She trailed off miserably. Ruby's heart went out to the timid girl.

"Do you know who they were?" She asked, feeling she already knew the answer.

Velvet nodded glumly. "It was Cardin." She still had some trouble saying the name, and Ruby could hardly blame her.

"That jerk." Ruby growled. "I can't believe him! He doesn't have respect for anyone! First he bullies other people and then he goes picking on animals, too. Doesn't he have anything better to do?!" Only when Velvet flinched slightly did Ruby realize how much she had raised her voice in her outrage, so she instantly lowered it again. "I'm sorry." She sighed. "I just feel like every time I try to tell myself to give that guy a second chance, he goes and does something to prove exactly why I shouldn't bother."

"No..." The corners of Velvet's lips curved slightly upward. "I'm... surprised that you're so brave."

"Huh? Brave? Me?" Dumbfounded, Ruby pointed at herself, tilting her head in confusion.

"Ah, well what I mean is..." The Faunus thought for a moment, trying to arrange her words properly. "What I mean is... I've never heard anyone speak out against him like that. Most people just tend to accept his actions and not question him. I think it's because they're all scared of him. I'm the same way..." Her gaze went downcast as her ears drooped. "I'm not very confident. I can't speak up. It's fine when they're just bullying me... but I can't stop them from harassing others, and I hate that."

"That's not true!" Ruby said earnestly. "There are _so_ many things wrong with what you just said! First of all, it's not that you aren't confident, you're just not a confrontational person, and that's not a bad thing at all! It's much better to avoid arguments whenever you can! I can't imagine a nice girl like you getting angry at anyone anyway. It doesn't suit you."

Velvet shyly met her gaze, her ears twitching a little as she listened to Ruby's words. "And also, it's totally _not_ "fine" when he's bullying you! It's not fine when _anyone's_ bullying _anyone_! It's infuriating that he's gotten away with things like this for so long..." She muttered before looking directly into her classmate's eyes. "Velvet, if you ever need help with anything, anything at all, please come to us. My team, I mean. We'll help you in whatever way we can, I promise."

Velvet was slightly taken aback by the serious expression Ruby was showing her, never before having met someone so intensely passionate about such things.

She had always assumed that her personal torment was simply a natural curse, a matter of the food chain; the weak only existed to be preyed upon by the powerful. But that was precisely why she had strived to get into Beacon, because she wanted to become strong, and Velvet could tell that there was no better place to start than here.

She took in a shaky breath before letting it out again.

"Thank you, Ruby." She smiled. "This means a lot. Really it does. I don't want to be frightened to walk the hallways in my own school anymore. I might not be able to stand up to Cardin just yet, but I'm going to do my best to improve myself. I want to gain confidence. I want to be more like you, Ruby."

"R-Really?" Ruby felt her ears grow hot, flattered. "W-Well thank you... I've never exactly been anyone's role model before." She chuckled.

"I think you'd make a wonderful mentor!" Velvet smiled. Ruby scratched the back of her head in embarrassment.

But the distressed fluttering of wings brought their attention back to the injured bird that was scuttling around the bush pitifully. Velvet's smile faded. "I don't know what to do for it. I'm afraid that if I leave it alone, it'll be killed..."

Ruby flashed her gaze from Velvet back to the bird, racking her brain for an idea. The damaged wing only appeared to be bleeding, not broken, and some loose feathers were preventing the bird from taking off.

"I have an idea." Ruby said at last. "Do you think you can grab him?"

"I'll try..." Velvet reached forward with uncertain hands, but pulled away with a squeak when the bird scrambled away.

"You can't go into a situation feeling uncertain!" Ruby coached her. "You've got to be confident. If you don't actually believe you can do something, there's no way you'll ever be able to do it."

Velvet nodded determinedly, breathing deeply again. This time, when she reached out, she managed to secure the small bird in her palm, holding onto it gently as not to frighten it further.

"Great!" Ruby cheered.

She then pulled the red ribbon off of her uniform in a swift motion. Through their combined efforts, Velvet managed to keep the bird fairly still as Ruby tied the ribbon around its injured wing, readjusting the ruffled feathers in the process. "There!" Ruby sat back, looking accomplished. "He'll be fine now."

"But he won't take flight." Velvet fretted.

"He probably doesn't want to." Ruby shrugged. "He probably feels safe with you. You're a bit jumpy sometimes, but once you calm down, your presence is really soothing."

A pink blush spread across Velvet's cheeks and she looked away, obviously flustered at the praise. She felt the little bird hopping about in her hands, preening its feathers as it stretched its wings.

Then, with a single chirp it took off in one swift motion, flying easily up and away into the forest. Velvet squeaked again and sat back as it zipped away, but she made sure to watch it for as long as she could.

"We did it..." She murmured under her breath.

"See? You just gotta put your mind to it!" Ruby grinned. "Well... maybe helping a bird isn't as complicated as standing up to Cardin but-"

"I understand." Velvet nodded. "It's the same basic idea though, isn't it? You can't accomplish anything unless you put forth the appropriate effort. If you don't make an effort, nothing will change."

"Exactly." Ruby was glad Velvet understood, as she knew the girl before her held amazing potential, both as a skilled fighter and a reliable companion.

It was then her stomach grumbled and she was reminded of how she was supposed to be getting back to her team to have lunch. "Aw man," Ruby muttered. "I'm super late. Weiss is probably having a conniption..." She got to her feet and brushed off her skirt, but realized Velvet made no move to follow.

"Aren't you coming?" She wondered.

"Pardon?"

"Come have lunch with us!" Ruby reached down her hand. Velvet regarded her palm cautiously before slowly raising her hand. Ruby helped her to her feet, brushing a small feather from her shoulder.

"Thank you, Ruby." Velvet bowed her head slightly.

"You don't need to thank me!" Ruby waved her hands in front of her again. "I'm just glad you've realized your amazing potential."

Onyx eyes shimmered with pride as they met with silver.

Then, Ruby led her toward the academic building. Immediately after they entered the cafeteria, a familiar voice barked out.

"Ruby Rose, what in the _world_ took you so long?" Weiss demanded.

"Seriously, Ruby. The princess wouldn't shut up the entire time." Yang chuckled.

"She thought you'd gotten lost." Blake added amusedly.

"Oh, come on. I'm not _that_ bad..." Ruby laughed as she moved to sit down in the seat Weiss had saved for her.

Velvet hung back, unsure of herself. But when she caught Ruby's eye, she knew what she needed to do.

"Ah, e-excuse me?" She spoke up, clasping her hands together before her. The rest of team RWBY looked up at her curiously. Velvet swallowed hard, taking another deep breath before she continued, speaking more confidently now. "May I... sit with you today?"

There was a brief moment of silence as the three girls stared at her, never having heard her speak so clearly before.

"Of course!" Yang exclaimed first.

"I'll get a spare chair." Blake offered.

"Ruby, move _over,_ you dunce! She won't have enough room!" Weiss huffed.

Velvet's ears twitched twice as she watched the girls before her arrange a seat for her. Ruby sat in her own chair before encouraging Velvet.

"Have a seat!" She invited.

This time, when Velvet smiled, Ruby could tell it was genuine.

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**A/N: I hope I could do Velvet as much justice as people said I did Penny! Writing this made me wonder who ended up being Velvet's teammates...**

**Tomorrow's chapter is a lot darker, so be warned.**

**Please review!**


	3. Yellow And Ash

**Today's spin landed on quite an interesting pair: Yang & Cinder. ****This idea came to mind. I hope you find it somewhat plausible. I'd say Yang is about 10 years old in this.**

**Genres: Suspense, Angst(?)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.**

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Chapter 3. Yellow And Ash

Yang took a stone with a sharp, pointed edge and plunged the tip into the bark of the tree before her.

Four lines already existed there, so for the fifth one she crossed it diagonally over the others. That was how many days it had been since she left home.

Her parents had simply started to get overbearing, and although she hated the thought of leaving Ruby more than anything, Yang just wanted some time to herself.

But presently, she came to decide that five days away was enough, as her grumbling stomach was pitifully empty. "I'm sure they're worried enough by now!" She told herself.

From where she was, deep within the woods, her home was only about a day's journey, and she had survived the past few evenings off of the snacks she had stuffed in her pockets and whatever rainwater she could find. Since it was summertime, the nights had been warm, but the bugs had still bitten her in several places.

But she had had lots of fun as well, because she had seen several marvelous beasts in the forest that she had never seen before, and she got to enjoy five whole days to herself with no adults breathing down her neck. "It was nice," she said aloud as she began walking back toward the direction of her home. "But I'm getting tired of talking to myself."

"Then why not talk to me, dear?"

Yang froze as a suave voice spoke from behind her. She could tell that it was a woman's voice, but not one she had ever heard before. Yet something compelled her to turn around slowly in the direction of the voice.

A shaded figure stood behind a nearby tree, her body half hidden behind the trunk. Immediately, Yang raised her fists and crouched low, imitating the stances of the boxers she had studied for so long.

"Who are you?" She demanded loudly.

The response was a powerful laugh, a mocking kind of sound that made Yang all the more furious, as it had not been the first time she had heard that kind of laughter.

"Oh, sweet child," said the woman. "I am only the most powerful witch in all the world!"

Yang lowered her fists slightly as her eyebrows pulled together.

"Witch?" She repeated. "Then you're evil!"

The woman laughed harshly again.

"Oh, you brazen little fool." She spoke words that Yang did not know the meaning of just yet. "Who are you to decide who is good and who is evil? You know nothing about me. You know nothing about what I could teach you."

"You... could teach me?"

"Sweet child, I can teach you things no one else has ever dreamed of. I've been watching you out here for the past few days, and I must say you've got talent. Brute strength, if nothing more. But it's leagues beyond that of many others."

When Yang looked closer, she could see the woman's eyes; they were alight like flames, red and fierce, brimmed with a burning yellow glow. Those eyes both intrigued her and sent a shiver up her spine.

"So what do you say?" The woman asked. "Why don't you come along with me and see what I can teach you? Don't you think it'll be fun to discover the world in a new light?"

The woman raised her palm to Yang and the girl took a step back, conflicted.

But the next instant, a flame burst into the woman's hand and Yang could not look away.

"Y-You're burning!" She cried.

The laugh came again.

"And yet I am not burnt." She swayed her palm from side to side, controlling the severity and color of the fire. Then, she closed her fist and the spark vanished. "So, I'll ask you one more time, dear; will you come with me?"

Yang remembered what her parents had always told her about disregarding invitations from strangers. But how could this woman be bad? She obviously had things of worthwhile value to teach her. The image of the fire in her palm had burned itself into Yang's mind, and she could not forget it.

Lowering her fists at last, she grinned as she faced the woman behind the tree.

"I guess I can make my journey a little longer." She said.

There was a brief pause, and then a word that Yang could hear the smile behind.

"Excellent."

The woman emerged from her spot behind the tree, revealing her appearance in full. She appeared to be only about ten years older than Yang herself, and she wore a mature, crimson dress that looked more appropriate for banquets rather than battle. She had hair like cranberries and chocolate, a reddish brown color that Yang had never encountered before that hung over the left side of her face. But of course, most notable of all were her fiery eyes that seemed to be in constant motion, flickering, calculating.

She reached out a hand toward Yang who instinctively flinched.

"Are you... going to burn me?" She asked.

The laugh.

"Why don't you find out, child?"

Yang swallowed, uncertain, but the curiosity that had been ignited within her had already spread too far at this point, and she could not turn away. Slowly, she raised her right hand and slipped it into the woman's palm.

"Excellent." She said again. Long fingers curled around Yang's hand firmly, a silent declaration that she had been claimed.

Years later, Yang still remembered the feel of those fingers, the slight burning sensation that she had felt the entire walk back through the woods, but her skin never showed evidence of.

And although she did not realize it at the time, it was only when she was older that she understood that if her answer to that woman's offer had been anything but acceptance, she never would have left that forest again.

* * *

"Ms. Cinder? I'm hungry."

"Irksome little glutton, aren't you?" Cinder replied, again using words Yang did not yet understand the meaning of. But most of the other things Cinder had said to her within the past week were nice things, so she assumed these words were nice, too. "Just level that last mountain and then we'll return to the cave." Her mentor ordered.

"Got it!" Now with the promise of food fueling her, Yang took a running start before she leaped into the air.

They were presently in an abandoned quarry located within the depths of the forest, and Yang had taken down wall after wall of rocks and minerals over the past week, expanding the desolate landscape even further.

Once again, in a move she had mastered within the first day of being taught, she brought her fist down onto the earth at the base of the towering cliff face. Using the special equipment she had been given to shield her knuckles, she sparked a bit of fire as she punched through the soil, then instantly jumped away as the explosion went off; she had learned to get out of the way quickly, for on the first day she had nearly been crushed to her death.

_But if I had been in any real danger, Ms. Cinder would have saved me_. She reminded herself.

The sound of clattering rock and debris echoed around the quarry for a minute as the dust began to clear. By now, Yang had already climbed back up to the top of the cliff where her mentor waited.

"Well? Did I do good?"

"Adequate." Cinder replied thoughtfully.

"Huh?"

"The powerful force of your punches has certainly improved," she explained. "However the execution was haphazard. We'll have to spend more time on that tomorrow." She decided. Then, her eyes flicked down to Yang's fists. "How are you liking Ember Celica?" She wondered.

"They're great!" Yang beamed, raising her knuckles. "But still kinda big for me."

"All in good time." Cinder's voice was calm. "All in good time."

They headed back to the cave that had become like a second home to Yang by now.

It was not just an ordinary cave as it appeared to be from the outside. Within the cold walls were tunnels that dug into the mountainside, twisting in all different directions and elevations like a maze. Yang had been told it was designed so trespassers would get lost.

"The few who make it out are deterred never to try and come back in." Cinder had explained.

"What about the others?" Yang wondered.

The reply was a wry smile, but nothing more.

Many other people lived within the tunnels, but all seemed to be under the reign of Cinder. Everyone had different duties, like the workers in a beehive. Some would make food with ingredients Yang had to question the origins of, but it all tasted good. There were other adults whom Yang had seen training powers in the quarry, some powers she could not even begin to fathom.

There were even several other children there, and Yang had tried her best to aquatint herself with them. But even though she was beginning to grow accustomed to this new kind of life, she realized that the other children were not given blankets to sleep on like she was, nor were they given three meals a day and fresh water. Yang knew they all had skills like her, otherwise they would not be there, so she often wondered why they were treated differently.

Therefore, one evening, Yang made her way over to where they were sitting in a circle, but the instant she approached they all stiffened up and fell silent.

"Hey guys!" She greeted them. "What's up?"

Her only answer was silence.

"Oh come on. You guys never talk to me! Do you even know my name?"

"We don't have to." One boy with musky brown eyes finally addressed her. "You're the Queen's apprentice. That's all we need to know."

"Queen?" Yang parroted.

"That's right." He spat. "You get to live the luxury life while we're treated like Faunus."

"Like Faunus?"

"Is she stupid?" The boy scoffed. "Like dirt! They treat us like _animals_!"

That made Yang a little angry.

"Hey, Faunus aren't-"

But the other children simply stood and dispersed, retreating to their own cold corners of the cave.

It was that night when Yang reflected that Cinder was like the queen of the beehive. No one knew where she slept at night, and she was never disobeyed in her orders. The only time Yang had heard someone talk back to her, Cinder had lead him out into the quarry and he never came back. _She probably banished him. _Yang thought. _Everyone knows the Queen's word is law. _

Yang had always felt proud that she was the only other person in the caves that utilized the element of fire aside from Cinder herself. But now she wondered if she had used any different kind of fighting style if she would have been treated like the other children.

It was another five days later when the new life Yang had come to know truly turned into a nightmare.

She had been out training with Cinder in the quarry, this time practicing controlling her fire. But when she heard a scream coming from the forest above, she quickly dashed into the trees. She arrived to find a gruesome scene that made her stomach churn.

In the valley below, a pack of Beowulves surrounded a small figure, and Yang's heart stopped when she recognized it to be the boy who had spoken to her several nights ago. He was armed with nothing more than a sword, and the beasts were already upon him.

Two men, whom Yang assumed to be his mentors, stood at the top of the hill where she had just came screeching to a halt. The men muttered to one another, shrugging and even chuckling as they watched.

"What are you doing?!" Yang screamed at them. "We need to help him!" She kicked off down the hill, but before she could slide so much as a yard, a hot grip seared her arm.

"No." Cinder dragged her back up to the hill. "Had he trained properly, he would be prepared for such a task by now. He is weak, and therefore he shall die. That is simply the way of things."

The entire time as she spoke, her gaze never left the scene before her, and Yang swore she saw a hunger in those eyes, a ravenous lust for blood.

Yang could only watch, petrified as the boy screamed again as long claws ripped into his torso. Blood splattered the grass as the wolves' fangs crunched bone, tearing the limbs from his body as they devoured him alive.

The sounds haunted Yang's dreams for months afterward.

She slumped to the ground as she wretched the contents of her stomach.

"Watch, child." Cinder's unmoved voice said. "Do not look away. The powerful survive and the weak die. This is how things are."

"We... could have helped him..." Yang choked, violent tremors shaking her entire body.

"Nothing could have helped that boy." Cinder scoffed. "See to it that I never bear witness to your shedding tears again." She warned.

She then disappeared into the woods as the other men followed behind.

Yang watched as the shapes of the Beowulves scurried away, back into the forest. All that was left of the boy was shredded clothing and red, and Yang realized that was not the only spot where the grass was stained.

It was on that day when she realized the new light Cinder had been trying to show her the world through was the light of fire, the light of destruction and death. Yang had been taught to crush and burn things, her weapons made specifically for those purposes.

She did not stop once as she tore back through the forest on stumbling feet. She realized she was still wearing Ember Celica, but was too terrified to stop and remove them.

Her heart pounded painfully as she dashed madly through the trees, her legs shaking uncontrollably as she headed back home- to her real home. She knew if she stopped that she would collapse, so she never stopped running until she crashed through the front door and threw her arms around her parents and Ruby, wailing and weeping.

That night, she slept in her own room in constant fear that her house would catch fire any second, that someone would track her down and murder her family. She had told her parents about where she had been, declaring she had been kidnapped, and the police had been informed.

But Yang did not sleep for the entire night, and only when the light of the sun came through her window did she allow herself to rise.

Yang could still clearly recall the intense terror of that long, long night.

She remembered the next morning when her parents told her the police had found the caves and the quarry completely empty.

She remembered insisting she be taken back there.

She remembered the chill up her spine when she saw the bloodstains in the grass had completely vanished.

She remembered the cold vacantness of the caves that had been bustling with life the day before; the only proof that anyone had been there were the indented mountains and piles of rubble that Yang herself had destroyed.

She remembered creeping into the cave again, frightened that someone would jump out at her, but it never happened.

She remembered finding the tunnel where she had slept, remembered seeing the haunting message carved in the rock wall there, letters still hot to the touch:

_"I look forward to crushing you myself in the future, you vile little traitor."_

* * *

Presently, Yang shuddered as she opened her eyes, finding herself lying in bed.

She quickly wiped the sweat from her forehead so her teammates would not notice her torment.

Her eyes automatically came to rest on the two golden gauntlets that rested on her desk, and another shudder ran up her spine as she heard a voice in her head. _"You've grown into them quite well." _It said, and Yang could hear the cruel smile in it's tone. She shook her head vigorously to clear it.

"I'm not like you." She spat back.

A faint chuckle sounded before the voice faded away again.

"I'm not like you." She said again. "I've got a new life to live, and I'll never go back to your horrible methods."

The ensuing silence seemed to challenge her. Had she not already accepted the darkness to some extent? Weren't the weapons Cinder had specifically crafted for her the same ones she still used so skillfully to this day?

"Yang?"

She looked up quickly to see her three teammates gazing curiously up at her. The worry in Ruby's tone suggested she knew what was amiss with her sister; this was not the first time she had had that nightmare.

Ruby offered a small smile. "Breakfast is ready."

Yang took a deep, steady breath before her lips broke out into a wide grin.

"Coming!"

* * *

**A/N: This was certainly a new kind of story for me. Let me know what you thought!  
**

**Please review!**


	4. White And Crimson

**Thanks for all the reviews on that last chapter as well!**

**Day 4: Weiss & Pyrrha. (****They're both about 10, I'd say).**

**Genres: Friendship, Hurt/Comfort. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.**

* * *

Chapter 4. White And Crimson

Weiss stood in her room before a mirror that had long since grown tired of showing the same reflection.

But she reminded herself that today she had to look her best no matter what.

Today was the day she would show the world that her months' worth of training had borne fruit, that her skills were superb above all others; it was the day of the Mistral regional tournament.

Although not a native to the region, Weiss was still permitted to participate, and her family had made arrangements to bring her there and observe her performance.

Weiss checked herself over several more times, making absolutely certain that her white combat skirt was unwrinkled and perfect. She ran a hand through her long hair which she had gathered into a ponytail, flipping it over her shoulder for good measure. This was only her first year entering, but she would win. She had to. It was not an option.

Her father had not shown much interest in the tournament, but he had shown enough, and this was what encouraged Weiss to enter.

She wanted to make him proud. She wanted to make him smile. Every day he came home from work looking exhausted, and sometimes, when he could not find the energy to be angry, he would be sad instead.

Weiss always wondered what it would be like to see her father smile, and she was determined to make it happen today.

As she was led to her family's luxurious car, her servants placed her rapier in her lap. The weapon was a much smaller version of Myrtenaster, a sword that had been crafted for Weiss's use for when she was old enough to attend Beacon Academy. But until then, she settled for the smaller, lighter prototype, which was more for show than for combat.

The Mistral tournament was divided into two different rings. The first, which was the one Weiss would be participating in, was meant for younger combatants, and was solely for the sake of demonstrating technique and skill.

The second ring was for combat, but only older students who had graduated from combat school could participate; Weiss could hardly wait for the day she would be able to step into that ring.

Once they arrived, she made sure to stick close to her father and servants, as the crowds of people were suffocatingly large; Weiss had no qualms with performing in front of an audience, but being amidst one was stifling.

When they reached the stage area for the first ring, Weiss parted with her father who simply gave her a pat on the head before disappearing into the crowd to find a seat for himself. Most of the servants went with him, but one maid stayed with Weiss, bringing her to the waiting are where Weiss would stay until it was her turn.

She surveyed the competition with calculating eyes, scrunching her nose as she got a look at the sloppy moves they were practicing. _Most of them didn't even dress up!_ She scoffed to herself. She watched as one boy tried to perform a parry move with his sword and ended up falling on his face. _They're not even taking this seriously! What next? Are they going to allow _Faunus_ to participate?_

Rolling her eyes, Weiss strutted over to the woman in charge as she called for attention. They children were given numbers ranging from 1 to 33, and Weiss was escorted to the back of the line, as the number on her card read 32. She was grumbling to herself about how there must have been some mistake, that she could not be _second to last_, she was a Schnee. _But I suppose I'll be giving them a finale they'll never forget!_ She decided.

Curious as to who the poor soul behind her was, Weiss turned around.

She was startled when she was met with two, bright-emerald eyes looking back at her. The girl behind her had crimson red hair as long as Weiss's and it was also tied back into a ponytail. She wore a brown-and-gold dress along with black boots, and carried what appeared to be a shield and a lance at her side.

When she noticed Weiss looking at her, the girl gave a shy smile. "Hello, there!" She said, lowering her torso in a small bow.

Weiss gave her a look as though she was deranged. "Um... hello." She muttered. Now that she thought about it, that was the first time anyone had initiated a conversation with her.

Weiss tried to turn away, but the girl spoke again.

"What's your weapon?" She asked eagerly. Weiss turned, showing the girl the rapier at her left hip. "A rapier, is it? That's grand!" The girl laughed heartily, making Weiss uncomfortable.

But this girl had a different air about her than the other children. She seemed more composed like Weiss, and it was clear by her sturdy figure and strong arms that she had been training for just as long as the heiress had.

Realizing she was probably her biggest challenge to beat, Weiss endeavored to learn more about the crimson-haired girl.

"What's your weapon?" Weiss wondered casually.

"Oh!" The girl lifted her lance that was far too big for her body. "It's a melee weapon! I can't show you now, but it's a javelin and a rifle as well!"

"You're going to use a spear?" Weiss gave her an incredulous look.

"A javelin." The other girl corrected. Weiss had to admit she was fairly impressed; the other children could hardly lift a knife. "I really wish I could see you fight," the strange girl continued. "But they'll be splitting us by odd and even numbers to perform in two rings simultaneously, so I'm afraid you and I won't get to see one another's performances." She then extended one of her gloved hands. "But either way, good luck, Weiss!"

"Wha-?!" Weiss stumbled back a step in shock. "How did you-?"

"You're the heiress, aren't you? I'd thought as much. Everyone knows who you are. Plus, it says so on your card." She smiled. Weiss looked down at her number to see it was true.

Ignoring the hand the red-haired girl had offered to her, she squinted at her card instead.

"Oh, sorry. My name's Pyrrha, if you can't read."

"I can read!" Weiss stomped her foot indigently as she spun around.

Pyrrha laughed.

"You're quite amusing! I like you, Weiss!" Reaching forward, Pyrrha ruffled Weiss's hair in a bold display of camaraderie Weiss had only ever seen transpire between the closest of teammates.

"H-Hey!" She batted Pyrrha's hand away. Pyrrha laughed again. Weiss grumbled and turned around promptly.

A minute later, the woman in charge of them came by to split the groups into odd and even numbers, effectively separating the two girls.

"Well, best of luck to you, Weiss!" Pyrrha called out before heading off to the other ring. Weiss felt a strange feeling in her chest as Pyrrha called her by name yet again; it felt like a fish flopping about on land, confused and frantic. _W-Why would she call me by name? She's got some nerve..._

As she waited for the tournament to begin, Weiss tried to remember if someone her age had ever called her by her _real_ name before, rather than a childish variation.

It was announced that the Mistral tournament would begin, and the first two children were brought to their respective stages. Weiss watched the other competitors with pitying eyes as they clumsily attempted to show off in front of the crowd. Several of them ended up freezing and had to be taken away. _They can't even handle a bit of pressure_.

Weiss held her chin high as the numbers climbed into the twenties. She could hear the distant shouting from the combat arena's ring and longed to catch a glimpse of the action, but it was impossible, and instead she was forced to witness yet another sad display of a boy trying to wield nun-chucks.

The only worthy competitors Weiss had seen so far were a girl with precise marksmanship with her bow and arrows and a boy with particularly memorable sword-fighting skills. But Weiss was confident she would emerge victorious.

At last it was her time to shine, and she listened to the announcement of her name as it echoed about the audience. Surprised comments filled the air as she stepped onto the stage, remembering to curtsey before she began.

Drawing her rapier, Weiss lifted it to her right cheek before casting a spell for agility that sent her soaring across the stage. She tried not to smirk to herself as the crowd gasped collectively, and she put an extra twirl into her jump as she casted her glyphs, a routine she had practiced many, many times.

She made sure to make a notable display of her technique, using all different kinds of Dust to demonstrate her precise control over the elements.

As she leapt into the air for the dozenth time, she caught a momentary glimpse of her competitor, the girl named Pyrrha as she performed nearby. Weiss did not see much, but from what she did see, she was astounded.

Pyrrha confidently utilized her javelin, demonstrating exceptional aim to thrust it into the ground before her, using it to propel into the air. A target had been set up for her on her stage, and with whiplash speed, she transformed her weapon yet again, this time into a rifle. Weiss did not need to see in order to know she had hit the bullseye flawlessly; the cheers that erupted from the crowd were signal enough.

Biting her lip, Weiss decided to step up her game, trying to win as many eyes back to her stage as possible.

She stretched her arms out before her as she landed, quickly forming a block of ice with her spells. She used her Air Step again as she darted up through the air, aligning herself with the ice from high above and steadying her hand, slowing her breathing.

Then, using a bit of Dust to enhance her agility, she spiraled down toward her target, her skirt fanning out around her before she tumbled into a front-flip. She brought the tip of the rapier down onto the ice, barely piercing it as she poured her strength into the weapon.

There was a second of silence.

Then, she leapt clear as the ice exploded into a diaphanous veil of dust, spreading about the stage in an eerily beautiful mist.

The crowd was in awe. Weiss soared above them, her hair snapping out behind her as she gazed over the countless faces, seeking out only one; she could not find him right away, but she wondered if he was smiling. She had worked very hard during practice, and she just hoped he had liked it, even if just a little.

But as her eyes sought out that face, she did not realize the stray shard of ice that hurtled toward her.

As she descended, it rose, and it was the last thing she saw before a concussive impact blinded her vision.

She cried out in pain, panicking as she felt warm blood dripping down her face. Unable to find her feet and land properly, she staggered, dropping her rapier as she fell to the ground roughly, both hands clutching her left eye. The amazed sounds of the people surrounding her immediately turned to fearful shouting once they saw the blood.

Weiss's head throbbed with searing pain as she desperately tried to open her left eye, only to see red. Her heart thundered, body shaking frantically, mind racing as she tried to remember which way was up.

But just before the panic could overcome her, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Weiss blinked up with her right eye to find a bright emerald gaze looking back at her.

"P...Pyrr...ha..." she gasped.

"Don't move." The other girl was surprisingly calm, although her eyes were a bit frightened. She felt Pyrrha place her other hand over her wound, flinching at the contact. Weiss heard her mumble something, a chant of sorts, but she could not make out the words.

Seconds later, a warmth rose within Weiss's stomach, spreading throughout her entire body. It was a foreign feeling, but it felt as though a barrier had been unlocked, something that was a part of her; it was a comforting feeling that made her feel safe.

Almost instantly, the blood stopped flowing as her wound closed, and Pyrrha sat back with a relieved sigh.

"Y...You..." Weiss hiccuped, taking her blood-stained hands away from her face. "What...What did you do? What...happened to me?"

"I unlocked your aura." Pyrrha informed her. She reached forward again to brush Weiss's bangs from her face and frowned a little. "There's a scar, but that's all. You won't lose the vision in your left eye."

"A... scar...?" Weiss repeated in a thin voice.

"Yes. Unfortunately..." Pyrrha smiled sadly. "I'm sorry. But I did all I could..."

Weiss did not know why she began to cry at that moment.

Perhaps it was due to the knowledge that the perfect appearance she had strived for for so long had been permanently damaged.

Perhaps it was the pressure from the bombardment of questions the adults asked her when they arrived.

Perhaps it was the fear that coursed through her veins that her father would be angry at her for messing up.

But Weiss believe it was because she was separated from Pyrrha without getting to thank her.

When he saw her face, her father said it was a shame. But even though she did not win the tournament, he commended her performance, and if that was the result, then Weiss did not mind the price she had had to pay for it.

After that, she did not compete in the Mistral regional tournament anymore. Every year, she heard of the winner, and for that year, as well as the next three, Pyrrha had emerged victorious.

Weiss never felt ill toward Pyrrha for beating her; after seeing the girl's performance for herself, she admitted there was nothing she could do to live up to her natural skill.

Plus, her father had smiled at the end of the day, and that was all Weiss needed to know.

* * *

The day Weiss moved to Beacon Academy was a hectic one indeed.

She had just recovered from getting a face-full of Dust sneezed onto her by some clumsy girl. Weiss sighed as she stood in the ladies' restroom before the mirrors, making sure to have cleaned off every last speck of Dust from her dress.

She briefly moved her bangs aside, sighing as the familiar pink scar came into view. _I wonder if I'll find her here..._

She made for the door, stepping out into the hallway. A crowd of people passed her by and Weiss started in the other direction, lifting her chin importantly as she went.

But she stopped in her tracks when she heard a familiar sound, a hearty laugh akin to the voice that spoke the words she could still hear in the back of her mind every time she picked up her rapier: _"I like you, Weiss!" _

The heiress inhaled sharply as she turned around, catching sight of a dark, crimson ponytail. Forgetting for a moment that she was supposed to be the composed successor of the Shcnee Dust company, Weiss called out in a small voice:

"Pyrrha?"

Time stopped for a moment as the crowd cleared, revealing a tall girl with bright emerald eyes who halted, turning back to seek out the voice's speaker. Weiss felt a smile curl her lips as their gazes met for the first time in years.

"Weiss!" Pyrrha rushed over to grab her hands, shaking them excitedly. "It really _is_ you! It's so grand that you've gotten into Beacon as well!"

"Yes... Grand." Weiss chuckled briefly.

"I'm glad to see you're well!"

"As am I." Weiss felt a blush coming on as she caught some passerby staring at the scene they were making. She cleared her throat. "Listen, I need to talk to you." She said. "About a couple of things. Are you... free for tea this evening?"

"I am!" She replied. "And I'd love to talk to you! I've got so much to tell you as well! Here, come along with me. I'll tell you about how I got onto Pumpkin Pete's!"

Weiss had no choice but to follow along, her right hand still in Pyrrha's as the crimson-haired girl pulled her along, talking excitedly. Weiss remembered that she still needed to thank her for what she had done all those years ago, but rather than interrupt the girl on her bubbly discourse, Weiss merely smiled instead. _I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to tell her_. She thought.

Weiss followed Pyrrha down the hallway, lending her ear and returning the grip on her hand.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you liked it. I have a certain affection for these twos' friendship. I think it's adorable.**

**Please review!**


	5. Black And Flaxen

**Day 5: Blake & Jaune**

**Genres: Friendship**

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.**

* * *

Chapter 5. Black And Flaxen

Blake's ears twitched several seconds before the final bell rang, picking up on the static signal in the air before the other students could hear it.

Yang noticed her partner's reaction and groaned, for once dreading the end of the class.

The bell rang as the students rose from their seats, all but Yang who just laid her head against the desk. "I'm sorry." Blake apologized again. "It was because of me that you got detention today..."

"Nah, that's not it at all, and you know it. It was my own fault for being so hasty." Yang stretched and got to her feet. "Anyone who messes with my partner messes with me." She grinned as she patted Blake's shoulder.

Blake offered a small smile in return. "Thanks, Yang."

"Don't you mention it. I know it'll be hard, but try to enjoy the two hours without me. Ruby and Weiss are gonna study, so it'll be a perfect time for you to just relax since I won't be there to bother you."

"You don't bother us." Blake scolded gently. "We'll be waiting for you, so make sure you do the work and don't get held there for an extra hour again, okay?"

"Can do!"

Blake was forced to leave her partner in the classroom, heading out into the emptying hallway. She made for an exit, breathing in deeply once she had reached the fresh air which was always welcome after a stifling, 3-hour lecture class.

Rather than returning to the room as Yang suggested, Blake decided to enjoy the warm afternoon air, straying from the courtyard a little bit to walk along the soft grass as opposed to the hard stone.

Now that her ears were no longer stifled by a bow, Blake could hear much more precisely. She listened to the familiar scurrying of animals under the brush, trying to drown out the voices of people that rose up from the school's main campus.

She was enjoying the sight of green through the leaves when her ears picked up on a sound that was definitely out of place. It was anything but graceful, thumping about in some distant tree and cracking some bark off in the process. Blake could tell it was too clumsy to be anything but human and set out to track down the source.

Before she even saw him, she could hear the familiar voice of team JNPR's leader as he muttered to himself. Blake halted several yards away once she finally caught sight of him, ten feet up a tree, his blazer snagged.

"Oh, come on!" Jaune complained, giving another unsuccessful tug.

"Ah..." Blake announced her presence. "Need some help?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, h-hey there." He chuckled nervously. "Who me? Need help? Nah, nah, I've got it under control."

"...Riiight." Blake remained where she stood with her arms folded, inviting him to proceed in his efforts. Jaune laughed again before giving another rough tug at his uniform, wincing when he heard the material tear.

"I..." He sighed. "I might need some help."

"Just a second."

"Usually when this happens Pyrrha just gets me down," he continued talking. "But I don't know where she is right now. I don't suppose you could go find her?"

"No need." Blake took a few steps back, her golden eyes focused on a branch on the opposite side of the tree.

"Uh... what are you doing?" Jaune wondered.

For an answer, Blake showed rather than told him.

With a short burst of speed, she charged toward the tree before leaping up, grabbing the branch and swinging her body around. It was a bit awkward to move around in her uniform like that, and she made a mental note to commend Ruby and Weiss for being able to do such things in a skirt.

Blake landed, perfectly balanced on the branch next to Jaune's, her footing not faltering so much as a millimeter. She moved with ease in a situation where Jaune knew for sure he would have long-since crashed to the ground as she walked across the branch to hold onto the trunk. She reached across and un-snared his uniform where it had been caught against the branches.

"Wow..." He cleared his throat, still baffled at her graceful jump. "Uh... thanks."

"Don't mention it." Blake sat down on her branch, leaning back against the trunk. "So... what were you doing up here anyway?" She wondered.

"Ah well, you know, just _hanging_ around."

"Spare me." She sighed. "I've got two hours free of Yang and I'd rather avoid the puns."

"Oh, sorry." He laughed sheepishly. "Yang's the punny girl who does the fire. And you're..."

"Blake."

"Pfft, _duh_! Of course I remembered!"

"Riiight." Again, she rolled her eyes, although she could not prevent the amused smile from forming on her lips.

"Well actually," Jaune went on. "I just like to hang out here sometimes. Not literally, of course. I mean... I just like taking some time to get away from it all, y'know?"

"I think I can understand." She nodded. "I often come out here too, if I can. It's a nice place to relax and-"

"Take a cat nap?" She turned around to give him a warning glare. "Sorry, sorry! Couldn't resist." He raised his hands for peace. "So... where are your teammates?"

"Ruby and Weiss are apparently having a study session, though I can't imagine it's going as planned." She reported. "And Yang's in detention."

"Again? What'd she do this time?"

"Well... i-it was kind of my fault." Jaune noticed when her ears drooped guiltily. "Ever since I stopped wearing my bow and people found out I was a Faunus... a lot of people have been very kind about it... but not everyone reacted that way." She sighed. "Yang got detention for punching Russel after he teased me."

"Those guys..." Jaune growled. "Cardin's actually gotten better, if you can believe it. But I guess not all people can change so easily..." He took her silence as her agreement with his statement. "But for what it's worth, I like your ears."

"...Thank you." This time Blake's ears twitch in embarrassment, but it was closer to flattery than anything else.

"So... how long do you plan to stick around here?" Jaune wondered.

"About another hour." She replied. "And you?"

"An hour sounds good." He agreed. "Y'know, maybe I'll do some pull-ups or something."

He had not particularly meant it to be funny, but he heard her laugh. It was a small, short-lived sound, but it was certainly delightful to listen to for those few split seconds.

The pair talked for a while as they sat back on their respective branches. Rather than problems or regrets, they merely talked about their classes, their teammates, casual news; it was nice.

Blake had always been able to hear many of team JNPR's antics across the hallway, but having Jaune explain things to her certainly brought clarity to a few things.

"What about that time Nora screamed about a cockroach?" She asked.

"Oh god, you heard that, too?" Jaune slapped his palm to his face.

"It was kind of hard not to..."

"...Okay, but you have to swear you won't tell anyone else." He said lowering his voice. Blake nodded. "That wasn't Nora. It was Ren."

Blake effectively stifled another laugh, but only barely. He told her a few more stories before wondering a few things about her team.

"So what's Weiss always yelling about?"

"Usually Ruby."

"Ah."

They lost track of time as they continued talking. When what she assumed to be an hour had passed, Blake was finding herself a bit reluctant to leave.

"Oh, hey!" Jaune swung his feet over the edge of the branch. Blake watched him with a puzzle expression as he tried to descend gracefully, which he managed for the most part until he lost his footing and fell the last few feet to the ground. "Dooww..." He pushed himself up, wiping leaves from his shirt. "Ah, so anyway. Do you think you could teach me how to do that move from before?"

"Move?"

"You know, the running and flipping into the tree?"

"I...I guess I could try." Blake had never exactly coached anyone in such practices before, but she presumed it was worth a shot.

Slipping her own legs over the side of her branch, she did not bother climbing down the trunk and simply dropped down the full ten feet, the impact hardly affecting her as she landed in a steady crouch.

"Great!" He grinned. "So where do we start?"

"Well... I supposed first you've got to get a good running start..." She explained the process to him in detail, down to the way the fingers gripping the branch.

She broke the move down into steps, first just encouraging him to conquer the run, jump, and grip, saving the propelling flip for later. She was surprised at how quickly he caught on, managing to copy her movements fairly well.

Blake realized just how adept he was, much to other peoples' misjudgment. He was not as uncoordinated as she had initially thought; he could pick up on the movements and copy them easily enough, it was just the fact that he had a knack for tripping up before he could finish.

Blake began to wonder if there was some form of curse on the boy as she watched the branch he held onto snap yet again, this having been the eleventh one. "I don't understand." She shook her head. "You're doing it perfectly fine. These branches shouldn't be breaking..."

"It's not a big deal." He brushed himself off. "I'll just keep trying!"

Blake smirked, welcoming his perseverance.

A few more times he tripped and a few more branches broke, but eventually he managed to master the first step. But before Blake could begin to explain to him how to start the flip, he held up a hand to stop her.

"This has been great, believe me, I've never done anything so cool in my entire life," his blue eyes were still incredulous. "But it's getting kinda late."

Blake looked up to notice the sinking sun. "You're right. We should head back."

"But... maybe, if you get some extra time tomorrow we could...?"

Blake smiled. "I'll see what I can do."

"Awesome!" He made a triumphant fist. "Well then, guess I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Jaune?"

"Yes?"

"Where are you going? Our dorms are this way. Plus, they're right next to each other. We can walk back together."

"Oh... Oh yes! Yes we can!" He laughed again. He followed behind her as they headed toward the dorm buildings. "Oh, and Blake?" He said as they walked down the hallway.

"Yes?"

"Thanks. For today, I mean. I had a good time."

"...Me, too." Her face was angled away from him, but he thought he could detect a smile in her voice.

Just as their dorm rooms came into view, a loud, familiar voice sounded.

"Blaaaake!" Yang rushed down the hall and grabbed her partner's shoulders. "Thank god you're back! I'm going insane! They kept me an extra half hour in detention because I feel asleep and now Ruby won't _shut up_ and she's making Weiss angry so Weiss's won't _shut up _and-" She cut off abruptly when she realized Blake was not alone. "Hooo, what's this? You two are an odd couple."

"What?!" Jaune yelped. "W-We're not a-"

"Stop it, Yang." Blake sighed, peeling the blonde's hands from her shoulders. "Don't let her get to you, Jaune."

"Oh-hooo on a first-name basis now, are you?" Yang jeered.

"Um, yes?" Blake replied dryly. "And so is everyone else."

"I'm just kiddin'!" Yang slung one arm around both of their shoulders before muttering to Jaune. "But seriously, if you lay a finger on her I swear I'll-"

"Yang!"

"Kidding!" Yang let go of Jaune, casting a half-serious warning glance at him that was quickly followed by a wink. The mixed signals only served to confuse him and Yang chuckled to herself as she pulled Blake back toward their room. "Come on. We need your levelheadedness to keep this team sane."

"Alright, alright." Blake sighed, turning back to the flaxen-haired boy. "Goodnight Jaune. See you tomorrow."

"Huh? O-Oh yeah! See you tomorrow!" He called back quickly.

"Oooh what's _that_ supposed to mean?" Yang pressed as she closed the door behind them.

"Yang-!"

"Kidding!"

Jaune stood there a moment longer, listening to the sounds of the four girls bickering with one another.

"They sure do get along well." He looked down at his hands, which were slightly scraped from where they had gripped the tree branches, reminding him of the enjoyable evening he had had.

He smiled, digging out his room key before he opened the door, being enthusiastically greeted by his teammates.

* * *

**A/N: This fic is a lot of first times for me writing certain characters. I hope I've done Pyrrha and Jaune as much justice as people said I did Penny and Velvet. The rest of team JNPR will be up soon, but first we have some... others for tomorrow.**

**Please review!**


	6. Lemon And Orange

**Day 6: Glynda & Roman **

**Genres: Hurt/Comfort, Angst (?)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.**

* * *

Chapter 6. Lemon And Orange

Signal Academy towered before her as Glynda stood at the entrance, awestruck.

At last, she had made it, the legendary school that her great, great grandmother had created, the school designed for training young people in the ways of combat.

Ever since her mother had first told her about the school, Glynda had been intrigued by the concept of fighting monsters. Like her mother and her grandmother before her, she had decided at a very young age to dedicate her life to being a huntress.

She was only ten years old, and it would be another three years yet before she could be admitted to start participating in the physical combat training, but until then, it was a mental battle; she was confident in her physical capabilities, but even more so in her intellectual ones.

Puffing out her chest, she adjusted her backpack before making a move for the doors.

But before she could take so much as a step, she felt an impact from the side, bowling her over. She fell to the ground, her glasses spinning several feet away from her.

"Ow!" She whined, despite herself. "Watch where you're going!"

"Well maybe if ya weren't just standin' around like an _doofus_, I wouldn'ta run into ya!"

She squinted up to see a boy wearing the male version of same Signal uniform as her. From what she could tell, his annoyed eyes were a swampy green color, but most striking of all was his orange-colored hair that was bright like the fruit. He had slung his backpack over one shoulder, in the exact manner Glynda's mother had described that delinquents do, cautioning her daughter to never do the same.

"Aren't you going to apologize?" She demanded as she reached for her glasses.

"In yer dreams!" The boy slipped his toe under her lenses and kicked them further away, laughing loudly before disappearing into the building.

"You fiend! I'll have you reported to the principal!" She threatened after him.

Glynda picked up the supplies that had spilled from her backpack and retrieved her glasses. Her light blonde hair that she had neatly tied into a bun had come undone, but there was not enough time for her to fix it. Hastily, she put her glasses back onto her nose before hurrying into the building to seek out her classroom.

_Dumb boys..._ She thought grumpily. _It's just as mother said! They're all lazy brutes! That's why it's aways been mother and grandmother and great grandmother who did all of the work in the family! That's why it was great, great grandmother who founded the school! Their husbands never did anything! I swear, if my future business partner is a man like that... _She tried to calm down once she reached her classroom, regaining her composure. _I can't let it get to me. I'll probably never see that boy again_.

She wondered if it was the curse of the women of her family to always have poor luck with men.

Glynda held back an outraged comment as her teacher led her to her seat, which was directly in front of the orange-haired boy's.

"Aw great, you're in my class?" He groaned.

"That's my line." She growled back.

"I don't wanna have to see your dumb lemon hair all day long."

"And I don't want to have to see your ridiculous orange hair every time I turn around." She shot back. "And it's not lemon!" She added indigently.

"Well ya sure are _sour_." He remarked.

"And you're far from being the most _likable_ fruit of the bunch."

The entire first day of school was torture for Glynda. They were given a brief overview of how the year wold go, and what lessons they would be covering. Unlike most other children, Glynda gave her full attention to such matters, as they were important for her success in the class.

However, the entire time she felt an insistent kicking on the back of her chair. At first, she tried to ignore it, but eventually the conscious notion of brushing it off became a distraction in and of itself. Once, he even kicked her legs, and she rounded on him.

"_I'm_ trying to listen!" She snarled. "It's fine if _you_ don't want to, but don't prevent other's from learning!"

"God, you sound like my _mom_!" He complained. Glynda glared at him distastefully before whipping back around, directing her full attention to the front of the room.

To her relief, the kicking stopped.

To her dismay, it was replaced by poking.

_So this was what mother meant when she said boys would give me gray hair! I can already feel it falling out! And it's only the first day!_

By some miracle, she refrained from spinning around, plucking the pencil from his grubby hands and snapping it in half; she had _far_ too much self-control for such childish actions, but she was allowed to think it all she pleased.

At lunch time, she refused to turn and look at him, opening her neatly-packed lunch box on her desk and enjoying the flavors of her sandwich. But even though she had an apple in her box, the wafting smell of banana filled her nose, and she jumped up immediately to find the boy behind her had put a peel in her hair.

"Why you-!" She stomped her foot, and had the teacher not been out to the restroom she would have ran up to him instantly to tell. Glynda removed the slimy peel and dropped it onto the boy's desk, her grass-green eyes burning with fury.

"What?" He smirked. "Ya gonna tattle on me?"

"And what if I do?" She challenged.

"Ya'd be a damn coward." He did not seem to be fazed as the curse word left his mouth, even though Glynda looked horrified. "If yer gonna go and tattle, then do it. I just thought ya'd be more fun than that."

"Fun?" She repeated. "This is school. We're not exactly here to have _fun_."

"Exactly!" He said. "School's boring as hell! But y'know what?" He sat up straight and Glynda stopped herself from stepping back. "I had a lot of fun today." He said simply.

Glynda looked into those swamp-green eyes for a minute and said nothing.

The teacher returned a minute later, and she spun around, asking permission to use the restroom, but saying nothing more than that.

As she washed the banana out of her hair, she wondered why she had not tattled on the orange-haired boy. _He's a bully! A no-good slacker! So why do I feel... bad for him?_ She dried out her hair thoroughly before tying it back up into a tight bun, just the way her mother had shown her.

Then, she returned to the classroom, avoided the boy's eyes, took her seat, and finished her lunch.

For the rest of the day, the harassment was kept to a minimum, and she wondered if it was the boy's thanks to her for not telling the teacher on him.

When the day was over, she gathered her books, turning around to see that the boy behind her had already dashed out of the room. She shrugged, telling herself it was for the better, before she went outside to wait for her bus to arrive. But just before she boarded, she felt a pat on her shoulder.

"Hey, Glynda!"

She turned around to see the orange-haired boy again. She was about to spit out "What do you want _this_ time?" but stopped herself when she noticed he was holding something out to her. "You dropped this."

Glynda slowly held out her hands, and he dropped the notebook into them. She was shocked, but it was no excuse to neglect her manners.

"Thank you..." She murmured.

The boy simply waved a hand before darting off toward his own bus.

Once she had taken her seat, Glynda opened the notebook she had dropped, locating the sticker on the inside cover where she had written her name. Beneath that, drawn in pencil, was what appeared to be a lemon with the word "SOUR" written across it. Part of her wanted to be mad, but it was overtaken by the part of her that was utterly confused.

She retrieved an eraser and placed it over the doodle, but for reasons she did not understand, her hand never moved. She closed the notebook and put it away into her backpack, only just realizing she had yet to find out the boy's name.

* * *

The next day, by listening diligently to the roster, she discovered his name was Roman Torchwick.

She knew she would never be able to forget that name for the rest of the year, but she was also resolved not to tell the teacher about his antics.

When she had told her mother the previous night, she had told Glynda that boys were simply immature and sometimes needed to be given some leeway. Therefore, Glynda had mercifully decided not to rat him out, seeing it as somewhat of a challenge for herself.

When it became apparent to Roman that she was not going to speak out against him, he became more talkative. That was around the second week of school, and by the third week they had figured out a sort of routine.

The mornings were when he would poke her back with his pencil, mumbling complaints about how yellow her hair was and that he could not concentrate. Glynda would retort with something that remarked his lack of ability to focus even without the distraction.

Whenever she shot a comment back at him, he would laugh, and Glynda was not sure why she often felt a smirk on her lips as well.

During lunch time, he would throw wrappers at her, which she would crumple up and hurl back at him, but he always deflected. The day Glynda actually managed to land a piece of candy in his hair was the day she jumped up from her desk and laughed out loud, rendering him speechless.

The afternoons were when he would kick her chair, anxious to leave the school. Whenever she could manage, Glynda would stretch her leg back to stomp on his toes, chuckling whenever she was rewarded with a muffled curse.

He would try to cheat off of her tests, but Glynda always caught him red-handed, and while she did not tattle, she always bragged to him about her perfect grades.

"Grades ain't everything!" He would always stick his tongue out at her.

When the year was halfway over, their seating arrangements were altered, putting Glynda several rows in front of Roman and to one side. For the first few days after the change, she could not concentrate on the lessons at all. She kept thinking someone was tugging her hair, mumbling harmless insults, tapping their desk in secret code... But no one ever was.

But on the third day, Roman started throwing paper airplanes at her when the teacher was not looking, or tossing crumpled paper at her desk. Glynda regained her passion to retaliate and would have the other students pass her jeering notes back to him, but only when the coast was clear; as far as the teacher knew, she was the smartest, most well-behaved student in the grade.

And that was all that was reported to her mother, therefore Glynda deemed it fine to continue her less-than-academically-sound relationship with Roman Torchwick.

Graduation day was not the last they saw of one another, either.

They were placed in the same classes for the next three years, until they started training for the combat lessons. They would often spar together during their break times, Glynda with her riding crop and Roman with his cane.

Even in their teenage years, they never relinquished their taunting.

"Come on, Lemon!" He would sneer. "Your aim is off! Do those glasses even work?"

"Can it, you degenerate!" She would shout back. "Maybe if you would learn to control the trajectory of your shots, you'd be able to see that it's not _my_ aim that's off!"

It was a curse, Glynda was certain, the curse of the Goodwitch family's women to always be stuck with languid men in their lives.

She was honestly surprised he had graduated from Signal's middle school, but even though his grades were nothing to brag about, his fighting skills were quite renown. He was the only person Glynda knew of who could tie her in a match, and no one had ever defeated her.

But she had to admit that he kept her on the edge of her chair, a reminder that she had to train constantly if she wanted to remain on top; if he ever beat her in a match, she knew she would never hear the end of it.

Years passed and aside from height and skill, they never changed much. They trained together and tormented one another, Glynda only retaliating when there were no straying eyes.

Eventually, they graduated together from Beacon, and Glynda earned herself a position on the board, assuming that he would naturally follow suit.

But gradually, Roman's presence became scarcer and scarcer in her life as work became more prominent; she now had students of her own to train, and her boss required constant surveillance.

Before she had realized it, Roman had gotten too mixed up in matters from which there was no coming back.

Glynda had sensed his descent into the darker side, and she felt guilt over it every day for never doing anything to prevent it;her Beacon team had been split in half, herself and Ozpin remaining on the side of justice as Roman and Cinder disappeared into the shadows.

To this day, the first thing Glynda did every time she walked into her office was sigh, and not even Ozpin's comforting words could bring her much solace. "We'll bring them back one day." He told her every morning, and Glynda always repeated the second part with him: "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But someday."

This morning, just like any other, she repeated the same chant with him, then straightened up as she started on her paperwork.

* * *

**A/N: I will never be swayed on this headcanon that Ozpin, Glynda, Romand and Cinder used to be a team at Beacon. Also, I don't know where I got all these ideas about Glynda's family of badass women. It just happened. I also don't know why I decided to give Roman an accent. It was just fun to write. (And a boy put a banana peel in my hair once. Unfortunately it wasn't in the cute, teasing way like I did with these two...)**

**Please review!**


	7. Yellow And Flaxen

**Okay to be totally honest, this is the lame chapter. I had no idea what to do for these two. Sorry.**

**Day 7. Yang & Jaune**

**Genres: Humor, Friendship**

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.**

* * *

Chapter 7. Yellow And Flaxen

Teams RWBY and JNPR often sat together in the cafeteria; ever since their impressive fight and defeat of the DeathStalker and the NeverMore back in the Emerald Forest, the two teams had become very well-acquainted.

However, ever since Blake's Faunus identity had been officially revealed, there had been a notable rift between the groups. It was not that any of them had been pitted against Blake due to her heritage, in fact they were all quite accepting, for even Weiss had come to terms with things.

Instead, the two teams had turned on their blonde team members, Yang and Jaune, as the two had done nothing for the past three days' worth of lunch periods other than make terribly bad jokes.

Weiss had been the first to stand up and move her seat on day one, and Blake had quickly followed. Pyrrha had sighed at her leader's hopelessness, and naturally when Ren had had enough of them, Nora scurried off after him.

Ruby was the last to go, and she did her best to deter their horrible pun-making. "Guys, don't you think three days is enough? Haven't you made all the puns by now?"

The two tricksters chuckled as they looked up to her, and Ruby took a step back, fearing what was to come.

"Jeez, sis," Yang chuckled. "You guys should tell Blake she doesn't have to throw a _hissy_ fit."

"Well y'know," Jaune cut in. "She was in quite the _purr_dicament for a while there!"

"We should ask her if she's _feline_ okay!"

"Wait, wait, wait, I got one, I got one! I just gotta _paws_ for emphasis."

Ruby could not groan fast enough, retreating further with every word they spoke.

"No _knead_ to run away, sis!"

"You can't make me stop telling jokes." Jaune added. "You can't tell meow to live my life."

"Oh god, that was a good one!" Yang cackled, smacking his shoulder so hard that he coughed.

Blake sat slouched forward onto the table several yards away with a book over her head, Pyrrha patting her shoulder as she tried to drown out the voices of her leader and his partner in crime as she listened to Nora tell about one of her dreams instead.

"Weiss..." Blake moaned, looking up past the pages with pitiable eyes. "_Please_ kill me."

"You first." Weiss slid her a butter knife and invited her to stab her ear.

"Oh come, on you guys!" Yang called across to them. "We're just _kitten_ around!" Her three teammates groaned, praying for swift deaths.

Yang and Jaune chuckled as they turned away from their teammates, having effectively frightened them off.

"Gosh," Jaune lowered his voice. "Blake's a saint for putting up with all this. I feel bad, so make sure you explain everything to her once it's all over, okay?"

"Definitely." Yang agreed. "I mean, as _hilarious_ as some of these puns are, I can only do this for so long, and I don't know how much longer those guys can take it." She quickly got up and switched her seat so that she could sit facing him. "Okay. So how is it going?" She asked.

"Not... much better..." He sighed.

Several days ago, Jaune had approached Yang after one of their lecture classes. He had explained how he was seeking relationship advice, and had heard how successful Yang was with such topics. Yang had told him from the get-go that she had never been in a serious relationship before, but that did not change the fact that she was the most knowledgable of their group on such topics, considering she was the only one of the eight who had actually been to clubs and bars before.

"Okay, let's get something straight first," she had told him. "I've only ever really flirted around in order to get information, you know? I've never done it seriously."

"But it _did_ work didn't it?" He had asked. "I mean, at least until your cover was blown."

"That's true." She had confirmed his assumptions.

Since then, they had not had much time to meet up or converse with one another without risking raising suspicion amongst their teammates, and although Jaune had never specified who it was he needed advice for, Yang had a pretty good idea that it was, in fact, a certain someone on his own team.

Therefore, they devised the plan they were putting into action at present, which was to utilize their personalities to their advantage.

For the past three days they had broken out into making horrible puns, at both Blake's and Weiss's expenses. Weiss had been the target the first day, and it had nearly resulted in the heiress leaping across the table to strangle them both, and they had only been spared such a fate due to Ruby's swiftness to hold her partner back.

The heiress had not spoken to Yang since, but once they had changed their target to Blake, Weiss had sympathized with the Faunus girl. Blake was less aggressive about the puns, but the blondes both knew that it could not go on for much longer before they had crossed a line.

Today was probably the last lunch session they would be able to chat in private about the romance matters.

Presently, Yang waved her hand before Jaune's face to snap him out of his dazed trance.

"Uhh... Jaune?"

"Huh? Oh, what?" He straightened up and blinked out of his trance.

"You _do_ realize just how obvious you're being, right?"

"Huh? Whaddyou mean?"

"You just tuned me out and stared at her for the past minute." She informed him.

"Wait, _seriously_?"

"Uhh, _yeah_."

"Aw crap..."

"I swear, you do this every other minute unless someone's talking to you." She sighed. "I can't believe Pyrrha hasn't said anything yet-"

"Shhh!" Jaune flailed his arms about. "Don't say it out loud!"

"What, you _honestly_ think she doesn't know?" Yang scoffed. "Do you honestly think_ the entire school _doesn't already know?"

"...Is it that obvious?"

"Listen, lady killer." Yang folded her arms on the table and leaned forward. "We all know you're not the smoothest stone on the shore, but it's not like there's no hope for you at all." She tried to sound motivational, but she realized it had sounded better in her thoughts.

Jaune slumped with a hopeless grunt. "Be honest with me; is she outta my league?"

"Well..."

"Of course she is. I didn't even have to ask."

"But that doesn't matter!" Yang said earnestly while still trying to keep her voice low. "None of that stuff matters! What matters is that you're a great guy and Pyrrha's a great girl and you both like each other so-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Jaune raised his hands for her to stop. "_What_ did you say?"

"Well, it's kind of obvious that she likes you, too!"

"It is?"

"Okay, let me explain you a thing." She beckoned him closer. "I know girls, and _she_ is a great one. You might not notice the way she looks at you, but _believe_ me eeeeverybody else does."

"She... she does?" He blinked uncertainly.

"Yes, she does!" Yang exclaimed. "She stares at you during every class. Whenever you answer a question, her eyes _light up_ and it's adorable. And she's always got your back in training, doesn't she? And..." she lowered her voice into a whisper. "Weiss told me about the second day of school, in the locker room just before initiation. You were asking the princess to be on a team with you, weren't you?"

"W-Well yeah..." He admitted. "But I don't think of Weiss that way. Pyrrha's the only one for me..."

"But that's exactly it!" Yang said. "Weiss told me the entire time you were trying to talk her into being your partner, she noticed Pyrrha just... _fidgeting_. She kept looking up at you shyly and tried not to look jealous when you kept talking to Weiss."

"Really?" He perked up, looking hopeful. "Wait, step back a second, how do _you_ know all this?"

"Oh, Jauney boy," she chuckled. "You don't realize how hot a topic you guys are in the RWBY room."

He choked on the water he had attempted to drink.

"Really?!"

"You two are just so cute, how you beat around the bush and all." She teased. "But it's so obvious you'll be getting together eventually. I mean come on, there must have been _some_ times you two have hit it off together, right?"

"Well..." He was thoughtful for a moment. "T-There was that one time a few weeks ago, I was... having some trouble. And Pyrrha was always concerned about me. She found me one night and offered to help, and I..."

"You...?" Yang prompted.

"I... I ended up yelling at her." He sighed guiltily. "B-But I was totally in the wrong! She was just trying to help. We made up and everything, and she still helps me out with my training every other night." When he finished speaking, he looked up to find Yang listening intently, her chin resting in her palms and an amuse grin on her face.

"That. Is. Adorable." She declared. "You didn't realize it, but when you were talking about her just now, your eyes got all misty."

"S-Seriously?!" He yelped.

Yang laughed aloud. "Trust me, Jaune. You don't even need my advice. Just be yourself. Give it time, and you two will figure things out juuust fine." She reached across the table to pat his shoulder reassuringly.

"Thanks, Yang." He gave her a lopsided smile.

"Don't mention it." She waved her hand dismissively.

By then, it was almost time for lunch to end, and their teammates started to stand up. Yang ducked as Ruby passed by, knowing that Weiss would follow. But her sister was chuckling to herself as she passed them, and before Yang could question her, Weiss stopped briefly before her and Jaune.

"Letting the chips fall where they may, was it?" She smirked, flicking her gaze from Jaune to Pyrrha and back again. But she said nothing more before she followed Ruby out.

"W-What?" Jaune yelped. "W-What is _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing." Blake passed them by next, her lips curled into an amused smile. "Just discussing how Pyrrha _deliberately_ chose you as her partner."

"W-What?!" Jaune looked like he was about to faint.

"Aw," Yang pouted. "You guys knew what we were talking about?"

"Heard every word." Blake reported, her ears twitching. "You're such a great wingman."

"Thanks." Yang got to her feet. "Then shall we leave the two lovebirds alone for a while?" She winked at Jaune before hurrying out the door with her partner.

Jaune glanced up slowly to find Pyrrha standing beside him, her face slightly pink.

"Blake was just telling me-"

"Yang said-"

The pair tried to speak at the same time and abruptly cut themselves off to allow the other to finish.

"N-No, you go first!"

"No, you!"

"Why don't you two settle things back in the room?" Ren suggested as Nora skipped up behind him.

Jaune met the gazes of all of his teammates before his eyes rested on Pyrrha. She offered him her hand and Jaune froze for a second. _"Just be yourself!" _Yang's voice echoed in his mind.

He straightened up, drawing out every bit of confidence he could muster as he smiled and accepted the hand that was outstretched to him.

* * *

**A/N: No, but seriously. Did you _see_ Pyrrha in episode 4 when Jaune was asking Weiss about teams? She was just trying not to be rude to Weiss and saying "well it'd be grand to be on a team with you but it's 4 to a team so perhaps Jaune could tag along as well?" and just whenever he speaks to her she smiles and folds her hands. And let's not forget "Actually Jaune, I think you'd make a great leader" and then how she specifically keeps and eye on him and spears him to the tree to find him later and just oh god it's so cute.**

**Sorry about that. I love Arkos, as you can tell.**

**Please review!**


	8. White And Pink

**Technically, the RWBY relationship week is over buuuut...**

**Day 8: Weiss & Nora. I was excited to do this one.**

**Genres: Friendship, Humor (?)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.**

* * *

Chapter 8. White And Pink

_It's okay, Weiss. You can do this. Just take a deep breath. In... Out..._

She coached herself as she closed her eyes, trying to obey her own thoughts as she inhaled deeply.

"Heya, Weiss?!"

The heiress jumped as a loud voice sounded from next to her, causing her to choke on the breath she had been so focused on. She ended up coughing harshly as she staggered back.

"Whoa there! You okay?" Nora slammed her hand against Weiss's back, effectively causing her coughing fit to worsen.

It was _that _day again. The day when Weiss and Nora were the two selected students to stay behind after combat class had finished, and put away the training equipment the students had used during lessons that day.

Weiss could handle almost any other person, as she normally just did her share of the work and took off without breathing a word.

But Nora was... _Nora_.

This had only happened twice before, the first time having been the most insufferable. Weiss had not known what she was in for: the mile-a-minute chatter about nothing in particular, the bubbling high-pitched voice that sent a throbbing through her head, the hyperactive darting about that put even Ruby to shame... It was all simply too much for Weiss.

The second time it had happened, she had been so finished with the situation even before it had begun, going so far as to insist she had an important appointment she could not miss, and the professor had let her go free.

But this time Weiss knew there was no escape.

She finally cracked her eyes open to find Nora still staring up at her with a wide, teal gaze. "Sooo... you ready to go?" The hyper girl asked, breaking out into a smile.

Weiss wheezed a few times, reminding herself to control her emotions as any Schnee should, and she straightened up.

"Yes." She sighed. "Let's get this over with. Preferably as quickly as possible."

"Quickly is my middle name!"

"I'd believe that..."

Nora then stretched her arms out to the sides and proceeded to run around the gym, imitating the sounds of an airplane. Weiss followed behind at a much more reserved gait, succumbing to her unfortunate, inevitable fate.

Their fellow classmates had already cleaned away their own respective weapons and returned them to their storage lockers. Weiss's and Nora's duty was to clean up the school's equipment, such as targets and hurdles that had been set up into a form of obstacle course for them to complete as swiftly as possible.

Naturally, Weiss had gotten the fastest time out of the class, however she had to admit she was more than a bit surprised to discover Nora had been faster than Ruby. Weiss did not think it possible for there to exist a person in the world with more energy than her leader, but she was beginning to rethink that now.

Nora used her brute strength to clear away the hurdles and pull them back to the large shed within the building where supplies were stored; Weiss would have appreciated her efforts more had she not been singing the entire time.

Sighing heavily to herself for the umpteenth time already, Weiss neatly lined up the targets in the same shed, adjusting the hurdles Nora haphazardly pushed in. She was aware of the other girl zipping about and saying random things, but she chose to ignore the questions she was asked such as "Wow, what does _this_ do?" and "Weiss, what's your favorite food?" and "Did I ever tell you about the time..."

However, there was one question that did cause her to react, albeit subconsciously.

"Hey, Weiss, do you sing?" Nora asked.

"Excuse me?"

"Sing! I wanna know if you sing! You do, don't you? Ruby told me about it."

"Why, that little-"

"Hey, hey!" Nora nudged Weiss in the side and the heiress recoiled. "Why don'tcha sing right now?"

"Absolutely not."

"Awww, come on!"

The resemblance to how this very same conversation had gone the first time Ruby had ever brought it up was uncanny. But nonetheless, Weiss's answer was the same.

"No."

"But why not?!" Nora whined. "There's no one else here! Plus the echo gives off a nice ring! I'm sure you've got a great voice!"

"Drop it, Valkyrie." Weiss turned away, heading back into the shed to put away the last target.

"Aw come on, pleeeease!"

The heiress felt a migraine coming on and put two fingers to her temple, sending out a silent prayer to end her torture.

Evidently, whoever was listening to prayers that day was in a mischievous mood.

After fifteen painstakingly hyperactive minutes of cleaning up, Weiss was more than ready to return to her room, even if that meant having to deal with Ruby and Yang at the same time; anything was more bearable than this nightmare.

Nora followed her into the shed, still pestering her about singing as Weiss reminded herself to breathe. She had just been heading for the door when a flash of pink appeared before her again.

"Please!" Nora begged one final time, clasping her hands together desperately.

But the action took Weiss aback and she stumbled, knocking into the line of targets she had so meticulously fixed not a minute before. The domino effect caused the entire line to shift, and Weiss watched in horror as she anticipated the outcome.

"No." She pleaded.

The targets continued falling.

"No..."

She was begging now.

The final target pressed against the inside of the sliding door.

"_No_..."

Weiss was on the verge of screaming.

As it slid, the target pushed the door with it, cruelly cutting off the light of the outside world the deafening click of a lock.

There was a moment of silence as the two girls stared at the door on different levels of disbelief. Weiss slumped down to her hands and knees. "Just let it all end..." She whispered.

"Woohoo! Aw, man that was so _awesome_!" Nora squealed, jumping up and down.

Weiss longed to shout, "You imbecile! Do you _realize_ what this means?!" but she was too exhausted, too hollow with disbelief at her impossible misfortune. She slithered over to one of the cold walls of the shed and pressed her back against it before burying her face in her knees.

Nora caught sight of her in the darkness and skipped over. "What's the matter? Isn't this great! It's just like in all those cheesy romance movies when the two people get locked in a closet or lockers or something! This could be a lot of fun!"

Weiss longed for nothing more than to shout out everything wrong with the statement Nora had just spoken, but she could not muster the energy.

"Just sit down." She mumbled, hoping that even if the talking would not stop, that the nauseating darting about might.

"Oh! I know!" Nora was not listening. "We can shout out for help! Or we can stack all the targets up so that we can climb up to that little window up there and see if we can squeeze out. Or we can-"

"The school's staff are all at a meeting until suppertime and that window could hardly let a cat squeeze through." Weiss stated bluntly.

"Hmmm..." Nora was unaffected by the shooting down of her suggestions. "Then we can use our weapons!"

"We've already put them away into our own storage lockers." Weiss replied in a dead voice.

"Then we can use our _fists_!"

"Absolutely not!" That comment had Weiss's voice rising to an appalled shriek. "That's damaging school property! Do you even _know_ how that would affect my permanent record?"

"Aw, come on! Live a little!" Nora plopped down beside her; Weiss was thankful that she had finally sat down, but flinched when she felt a rough arm slip around her shoulders. The smile faded from Nora's face for an instant as she noticed the heiress's reaction and quickly let her go. "I mean... I could do it, you know." She continued in a somewhat quieter voice. "I could break down the door and explain to them how it was all my idea and only I was responsible."

Weiss held back whatever tart reply she had been preparing, almost touched that Nora had made such a selfless suggestion. The seriousness in her teal eyes told Weiss she was more than willing to go through with it and take all of the repercussions upon herself.

Weiss had to hold back a tiny smirk of approval before she replied.

"Cute." She offered. "But that's not how it works. We're in this mess together, and it wouldn't be fair for you to take all of the blame by yourself. We'll figure something else out."

Weiss jumped a bit when she saw how wide Nora's grin had stretched, her eyes sparkling.

"Got it!" She replied. Weiss suspected she was resisting the urge to hug her, a display of self control not Ruby nor Yang had yet reached the level of.

Weiss directed her gaze back to her knees, racking her mind for ideas.

"Do you have your cell phone?" She wondered.

"Nope!" Nora replied almost proudly. "I lost it."

"Again?" Weiss had heard about how many devices she had been through in the past month from Pyrrha.

"Yeah." She admitted. "I'm not very organized. I always wished I could be more like you."

"Pardon?" Weiss was sure she had misheard.

"I said I wish I was more like you, Weiss." Nora repeated matter-of-factly. "You're so smart and pretty and can sing and you're organized and calm. I need to be like that sometimes, but it's really hard for me." She leaned her head back to look up at the dusty ceiling of the shed, and Weiss was certain it was the first time she had ever seen this girl so melancholy.

"Well, I'm not all I'm cracked up to be." The heiress muttered bitterly. "Sometimes I wish I had your never-ending supply of energy, you know. It'd... it'd be kind of nice not to get so tired after every battle, and it'd be nice to not have people avoid me because of my attitude..."

She did not know why she was saying these things, to Nora Valkyrie no less, but she could not stop herself. "I don't think you'd want to be like me. It wouldn't suit you. You're fine as you are."

Nora turned her head sideways to look back at Weiss who avoided her gaze.

Nora had realized on day one that Weiss a little more different than everyone else. She always seemed to have a lot on her mind, even during mealtimes, and it always made Nora curious about the events that transpired behind the scenes.

Looking at the heiress now, subdued and curled up to half her usual size, Nora realized that many of her previous stereotypes about her were false.

"I'm sorry." Nora said.

Weiss blinked in surprise. "Where in the world is this coming from?"

"To be honest, I was always kind of afraid of you." Nora went on, still smiling. "I was scared you were gonna yell at me about everything I did. And you did," Weiss flinched again. "But not in _that_ kinda way." Nora went on quickly. "I could always tell you didn't really mean it when you yelled, whether it was at me or Ruby or Yang. But the few times you _did_ mean it, it was because you didn't want us getting hurt!"

She hoped she had conveyed her message properly, as she had never been much good at that either. She waited anxiously for some form of reply, worried she may have upset Weiss in some way.

But the heiress simply titled her head back to look up at the ceiling, much in the same manner Nora had done before.

"You know," she said. "I used to think you were even more dim-witted and hyperactive than Ruby. And I was right." Nora's smile faded a little bit until Weiss looked directly into her eyes. "And that's _fine_."

Nora's smile immediately doubled in size as the sparkle returned to her teal eyes.

"Thanks, Weiss!" She beamed. Weiss turned away, concealing a blush. "Aw, don't be shy!" Nora slid in closer to her. "Come on, whoddya think is gonna be the one to find us? I'm saying it's Ren. He always knows where I am. It's like intuition or something. So who do you think it's gonna be?"

"...Ruby." Weiss answered.

"Okay! The bets have been placed! Now all that's left is to wait and see!" Nora began to hum to herself as she smiled the time away.

Weiss felt the atmosphere change drastically; it was no longer stifling and unbearable, but rather just... normal.

She listened to the echo of Nora's humming, recognizing the song instantly. A thought surfaced in her mind, and though a part of mind tried to deter her, Weiss perused.

She took a deep, steady breath, waiting for Nora's hum to reach a certain point in the song.

Then, Weiss began to sing.

Nora needed to stop for a moment as she turned toward Weiss, wide-eyed and bewildered by the angelic voice she was hearing. She rubbed her eyes and pinched her own cheek to convince herself it was real, baffled by the lovely sound.

The heiress's voice glided smoothly over the words, reaching the highest points of the octave with ease; it was a voice that demonstrated many, many years' worth of practice.

Weiss opened one eye and flicked a meaningful look at Nora who quickly understood her intent. She began humming again, providing support for Weiss's voice as she sang the familiar words.

For a time, the air was filled with two voices that had never before complimented one another quite so well.

At last, Nora held out the last note for as long as she could, but let it die away to be lost in Weiss's voice. She made sure to engrave that beautiful sound into her memory, relishing the perfection of key and the slight tremor as she finished the note.

A moment of silence followed as Weiss caught her breath, and Nora stared at her in stunned silence. But of course, it did not last for long.

"Wow!" Nora squealed. "Wow, wow, _wow_! That was _amazing_! I can't believe that was real! Wow, oh my gosh!" She did not manage anything more than that.

"It's not that big of a deal..." Weiss mumbled. She honestly was not sure of where to go from there, but thankfully she was spared.

Two new, yet very familiar voices sounded from outside the storage shed just then.

"Weeeiissss!"

"Noooraaaa!"

"Ruby?"

"Ren!"

Nora jumped up immediately. She offered Weiss her hand and the heiress gave her silent thanks as she was pulled to her feet.

There was a bit of rattling at the door of the shed, and a second later, light came pouring back in, causing the two girls inside to squint.

"Are you guys okay?" Ruby fretted.

"We're fine." Weiss let out a relieved sigh as she stepped out.

The instant she saw Ren, Nora bounced forward and threw her arms around him, nearly knocking him over, cutting off whatever it was he was about to say.

"Nora-oomph!"

"Yay! I knew you would come find me!" She beamed. "Oh, but I guess you were right too, weren't you, Weiss?"

"W-Well-"

"What does she mean?" Ruby wondered as she dusted off her partner's shoulder.

Nora proceeded to explain, much to the heiress's chagrin. "I bet that Ren would be the one to come find me, and she bet _you'd_ be the one to find _her_!"

Ruby and Weiss shared a quick glance, which only caused them to become more flustered.

"Did... Did you really bet that I would be the one-"

"Oh, for heaven's sake, let's just get back to our rooms!" Weiss snapped. "I'm starving." She led the way, leaving Ruby to follow behind hastily.

Ren was dragged along by Nora whom Weiss caught the eye of, a silent plead not to tell anyone of the events that had transpired between them that evening.

Nora gave her a huge smile and winked in return, and Weiss decided she could live with that.

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**A/N: I had fun with this one. I think they'd make for an amusing friendship.**

**Please review!**


	9. Coal And Crimson

**Day 9: Ren & Pyrrha**

**Genres: Friendship**

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.**

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Chapter 9. Coal And Crimson

"Come on, you can do it! Just one more time." Pyrrha called.

"I'd really rather not." Ren replied hollowly.

"If you don't, you leave me no choice but to come back over there and throw you myself."

"Alright, alright." He raised his hands for peace, trying to deter her from taking any hasty actions. "Just give me a minute."

Presently, he stood at one end of a chasm while his teammate faced him from the opposite side. The two of them were currently in a bit of a predicament.

Team JNPR had been sent out to deal with a Beowulf sighting on the outskirts of the Emerald Forest. Citizens of Vale had reported seeing the monsters close to town, and reported it. Beacon Academy's immediate response was to send out a capable team to deal with the issue, and they had managed quite well with the first group of beasts.

However, they had not been expecting more than the number they had been told to expect, which was twenty. Therefore, when another hoard of the beasts had come howling down the hills from behind them, team JNPR had been split in two.

Jaune had declared it would be better to break the wolves apart and deal with smaller groups. But the way things worked out, the pairs they ended up being split into were not with their respective partners, and they had had no choice but to work with the plan in that manner.

Pyrrha and Ren were presently on their way back to reunite with their teammates, having stumbled upon an alternative route to fighting the bloodthirsty beasts that had chased them through the trees; fueled by adrenaline, the two had managed to clear the chasm the first time, leaving the beasts to fall into the pits where they were made easy targets for the students' bullets.

But now, Ren stood at the edge of the cliff face, looking down at the still-disintegrating bodies of the Grimm and swallowed hard. The only thing motivating him to make the jump this time was Pyrrha, who was thankfully quite different from a pack of hellhounds.

He had taken the running start five times already, but always came screeching to a halt just before he could jump. The first time, Pyrrha had nearly suffered a heart attack, but now it was becoming clearer to her that he was just not motivated enough to make the jump. While she did not want to rush him and have it result in him injuring himself, she also wanted to get back to find her teammates as quickly as possible.

"Okay, you've go four options." She called to Ren. "One: I jump back over there and throw you myself. Two: You climb down the cliff, across the bottom and back up the other side, although I can't assure there aren't more Grimm lurking down there." She added meaningfully. "Three: you wait for some _other_ pack of monsters to motivate you into jump back over. Or four, and what I believe to be most preferable, you stop worry and make the jump right now."

"I said to give me a minute." He reminded her.

Ren had never exactly been the most athletically adapt person. No matter how hard he trained he never seemed to gain much muscle, and he always ended up collapsing after long battles or hikes through the woods. Even now, he was already starting to feel tired, and he still believed it to be truth that Nora sapped his energy away and took it as her own.

"Come on, Nora," he mumbled to himself. "Just a little bit."

Tracing back the path he had run five times already, crouched low, he measured the distance for the jump. Pyrrha was poised on the other side, watching his movements carefully and prepared to nail him to the side of the cliff with her javelin if necessary. He really hoped things would not turn out that way, and he gathered as much power as he could before taking off.

He did not hesitate this time, leaping off the cliff and firing two blasts from Stormflower into the ground to help propel himself upward and forward. He could not stop himself from glancing below what must have been a mile down to where the bone masks of the Grimm were the only things left of them by now.

Pyrrha anticipated that he would make it across and promptly dropped her weapon, reaching out to steady his rough landing when he finally reached her.

"See?" She punched his shoulder affectionately, as only she could. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Just... give me a minute..." Ren sat down heavily onto the ground as he put away his guns.

Pyrrha kept her shield at her side as she surveyed the forest around her. "If we keep going in a straight line, we should end up right where the four of us split." She guessed. "I wonder if we should stay there or go out to search for them?"

"Let's just get back there first, shall we?" He suggested.

"Right." Pyrrha reached down her hand and he gratefully accepted the offer.

He followed her back through the woods at a steady pace, as they were both fairly exhausted, even though Pyrrha concealed the fact more effectively. "Let me know if anything looks familiar." She suggested.

"Not really." He replied. "Everything just looks like trees. But I'm sure we'll find them soon enough." He added, noticing her emerald eyes flashing with worry.

They continued on for a while, and Ren noticed she was growing more and more anxious. "I'm sorry." She said at one point, which seemed to be her favorite phrase. "This is all my fault."

"No, it isn't." He informed her. "You know they'll be fine, so why are you concerning yourself?"

"Because it was my fault for not noticing the wolves sooner. I thought we were winning so I got careless and let my guard down."

"That happens to all of us." He said. "You're doing it again, Pyrrha, worrying about trivial things that no one else is worried about. Do you honestly think any of us blame you specifically for it?" She seemed to consider for a moment, and he went on. "Besides, it's not that big a deal. It's not like we're on a time limit or anything. I know it might be against your nature, but you should try to worry less."

She cast him a sideways glance and smiled slightly.

"Right. Thanks, Ren."

"No thanks necessary."

He had noticed this about Pyrrha since their first mission, how she tended to blame herself for everything and anything that went wrong, no matter how small it was. Sometimes, she would hang her head shamefully for days afterward, always under the impression that the rest of them were mad at her until they told her directly that was not the case.

Ren could not help but worry about her sometimes, and he knew Jaune and Nora felt the same way, as the three of them had made it a goal for themselves to have Pyrrha stop her self-imposed guilt trips.

Feeling that he had been successful this time, Ren continued to walk beside her, trying to recall whether any one tree looked somewhat more familiar than another. Rather than calling out to their teammates and drawing more unwanted attention to themselves, they relied on sight, seeking out any splash of color.

However, what they ended up spotting were not the familiar figures they were searching for.

Pyrrha sensed them as well and stopped moving, slowly raising her shield as Ren drew his guns.

"How many?" He asked her.

"About twenty."

"Fantastic."

The sounds of grunting and squealing grew louder as the trampling of the underbrush drew toward them. Seconds later, the bushes exploded with the beady red eyes of the Borabatusk, their burly black bodies charging clumsily through the foliage.

Pyrrha blocked the first one's charge with her shield, knocking it backward and dazing it long enough to allow Ren to shoot it between the eyes. Normally, if it had been the four of them, Pyrrha would have kept to using her shield and fending the beasts off in this manner, disorienting them before allowing her teammates to finish them off.

However, being they were two members short, she needed to use her javelin as well, as the beasts were too well armored for her rifle to be much use.

Her aim was not as precise as Ren's when it came to such close-range battles, and he was able to use his guns to blast the eyes every time. Pyrrha kept one eye on him as she bowled over another of the creatures, running her spear up its belly to silence it.

But once they had halved the number of adversaries, she could tell Ren was getting tired, already enervated from the previous battle and leap across the chasm. With a mighty swing of her spear, Pyrrha forced back the circle of boars for an instant, confusing them momentarily and giving Ren and herself a bit of free time. "Ren!" She got his attention and crouched down, readying her shield above her knee.

His magenta eyes locked with her emerald ones for a split second.

"You're not serious-"

"Up you go!" She said in a voice that did not allow for questions.

The boars were beginning to reconvene and Ren saw no other options. He jumped up in the same fashion he usually saw Nora execute, as this was her favorite move and she was always eagerly waiting for Pyrrha to cue her in every battle.

His feet came into contact with the shield for a split second before Pyrrha gathered her strength and jumped, launching him up into the air, soaring above the trees.

The boars were already upon her, and Pyrrha slashed out left and right, taking down two more of them. But from his vantage point, Ren could see that her back was wide open and he took aim, shooting down three more of them and giving Pyrrha more time to react to the remaining five. She caught her shield around one's tusks and gave a powerful yank, tearing the bone and leaving the beast screaming and bleeding. She slashed the throat of another, which knocked the one behind it onto its side, giving her a clear shot to the neck.

As Ren descended, he shot the final two, landing seconds later over the corpses as they began to rot away. He looked up to find Pyrrha giving him a triumphant smile, but all he could do was slump to the ground.

"That... was absolutely insane." He wheezed.

"Do you see now why Nora enjoys it so much?"

"I guess I can," he put a hand to his head. "But please... if we can help it, let's not ever do that again."

"No promises." Pyrrha shrugged. "I wonder how she'll react when she finds out you did her 'special move'. The Jump of Justice, I believe it was?" She mused, sitting down beside him for a moment to catch her breath.

As Ren put away his guns, he noticed a line of red trickling down Pyrrha's arm, too dark to be her hair. A long, nasty gash from one of the tusks bled freely, and he winced just looking at it. She noticed his reaction and quickly tried to cover the injury.

"It's okay." She reassured him. "It's not that deep."

"Either way, it'll heal better if I help. Your aura's already pretty strained after the first fight." He placed a hand over her arm and channeled from his own aura, emitting it onto the wound. It healed notably faster after that, and Pyrrha bowed her head.

"Thank you, Ren."

"I told you, no thanks necessary." He got to his feet, this time offering his hand to her. "We're teammates, after all."

Pyrrha smiled up at him as she slipped her palm into his. "Right!"

Picking their way around the disappearing bodies of the Grimm, they continued on their original path in an attempt to make it back to the location of their initial battle.

Thankfully, it was only a few minutes longer before they saw two familiar figures up ahead. Nora raced over to them as Jaune followed on wobbling legs.

"Ren!" As she always did every time they had been separated for more than five minutes at a time, Nora threw her arms around his neck. "We saw you! I mean we saw you flying above the trees! You did the Jump of Justice, didn't you? Wasn't it _amazing_?!" She babbled.

"Yes, it was... quite something." He cleared his throat, trying to stay on his feet as she let him go.

By then, Jaune had limped up to them, panting.

"Are you... guys okay...?" He asked, trying to use his leader voice.

"We're fine." Pyrrha replied, happy to have the four of them back together. "What about you two?"

"We're right as rain!" Nora saluted. "We were fighting the Beowulves for, like, half an hour because more of them just kept coming! But I made this rift in the ground and..."

As Nora trailed, Pyrrha listened attentively, smiling all the while.

Ren looked up as Jaune limped over to him.

"I don't know how you do it, man," his leader muttered. "Keeping up with her, I mean."

"I really don't know either." Ren replied. "It just looks like I can manage. Somehow." The two boys let out a simultaneous sigh as their eyes flashed to the girls in front of them.

Then, the girls turned back to stand beside them, and the team listened to Nora's eager storytelling as they headed back home.

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**A/N: Haven't done some JNPR love in a while. Hope you liked it! Next chapter is the finale!  
**

**Please review!**


	10. Red And White

**Thank you all so much for reading till the end! I've had this idea for a while now, and this just seemed like the perfect place to put it! Thanks so much, you guys! Enjoy the finale!**

**Day 10: Ruby & Weiss [Alternate scenario to episode 7-8, I guess? You'll see.]**

**Genres: Friendship, Suspense (?)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY**

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Chapter 10. Red And White

Weiss heard a frustrated scream, followed shortly by a loud cracking sound, but she did not turn back.

_What a child. What an absolute child. Throwing a tantrum now and swinging her oversized sickle about the forest like that. I can't believe this. I can't believe _that_ is supposed to be my partner for the rest of my time here! This is a nightmare! _

She continued to stomp through the underbrush, not even attempting to control her anger any longer. The argument she had just had with Ruby was still fresh in her mind. _Bossy. She thinks I'm bossy. She thinks I'm self-centered enough to think of myself as 'perfect'. What an ignorant little girl._

But it had not been the fact that Ruby called her bossy, nor was it the way she had mocked Weiss in that mortifyingly whiny voice. What had hurt Weiss most of all was what Ruby had said before all of that: _"You're a big, stupid jerk and I hate you!"_

Weiss flinched again as the line echoed in her mind once more.

She did not know why it bothered her but it did.

She did not know why it hurt, but it did.

Perhaps she had just not been expecting to hear the words she had listened to for the first twelve years of her life to be coming from her partner at Beacon Academy. _I guess this place will be no different..._

She maintained her stiff pace, refusing to look back to check if Ruby was following or not, biting her lip as she fought back the bitter frustration twisting in her stomach.

Ruby made sure to walk several paces behind Weiss, glaring at her back all the while, snorting as she recoiled Crescent Rose, folding it back into its more portable form. _I can't believe this_. She thought. _This was supposed to be the best time of my life! I'm finally here at Beacon, and so far all I've done is get yelled at! All I try to do is be friendly and everyone turns on me! Plus, my partner is a total snob! How am I supposed to work with _her_? _

Ruby continued to scowl at Weiss's back as she followed, even though they both knew they were hopelessly lost. But Ruby found she could not keep the expression on her face for very long.

Yang had always told her she never stayed mad for long, and Ruby realized it was true. She did not like feeling negative, as it only made her feel worse about whatever situation was at hand, and she was certain it did not help anyone else feel better, either.

She remembered the look on Weiss's face before she had whipped around and began to stride away, and Ruby felt a seed of guilt rise within her. _"You don't even know me." _She had said to Weiss.

_Yeah, well I don't know her, either_. She realized at present.

Sighing, she knew she needed to say something in way of apology before her relationship with her partner got any worse. She picked up the pace a bit as Weiss drew ahead, past a thicket of brambles that opened up into a clearing littered with ruins. Ruby summoned her courage and shouted after her.

"Weiss!"

She watched as the girl before her paused before spinning around.

"What?" She snapped.

Not "don't talk to me!" Not "be quiet!"

Ruby felt a little relieved. "I- whoa..."

She forgot what she had meant to say when she emerged from the brush after Weiss, her silver eyes widening as she gazed up at the ruins behind the heiress. Weiss had her back turned to the scenery, directing her full attention to Ruby and obviously waiting for her to continue speaking, oblivious as to what was behind her.

"What is it _this_ time?" She demanded scornfully. "I've just about had it up to here with your-"

"Weiss..." Ruby murmured. "Look..." She lifted her index finger to point.

Weiss glared at her for a few seconds, refusing. "Finish your sentences, will you?" She scoffed. "You can't just-"

"_Weiss_!" Ruby placed her hands on the heiress's shoulders and manually turned her around.

"Hey! What do you think you're-!" Weiss started to protest adamantly, but her voice died away when she finally saw what Ruby had wanted her to see.

A dozen yards ahead of them stood a dilapidated structure, piles of ancient rock smothered by strangling vines. The ruins rose up into the lopsided form of a tower.

But what caught Weiss's attention and caused her heart rate to increase was the large beast that sat atop it.

A nest made of full-sized forest trees shielded the belly of an enormous, beastly Grimm in the form of a bird. It was ten times the size of a full-grown Ursa, but the wingspan was surely the length of its body, if not larger. Its bone mask was lowered into the branches of its nest, quelled by slumber at the moment.

Weiss took in the terrifyingly awing sight of the beast, suppressing a shiver. Ruby gaped beside her for a minute before stepping out into the clearing. Weiss immediately grabbed her wrist and yanked her back.

"And just _what_ do you think you're doing?" Weiss hissed. "Do you _know_ what that is? That's a Nevermore! It's not the same as a Beowulf, you know! That thing would swallow both of us whole if give the chance!"

"I know what it is!" Ruby whispered back fiercely. "But don't you think this could be the forest temple? Wouldn't it make sense for them to put the pieces under the nose of a monster? It's like fighting the final boss!" She mused.

"This _isn't_ a game, Ruby!" Weiss snapped.

However, she could not deny what the younger girl had said, that there was some sense in the teachers placing the pieces in the direct territory of the beast. It might also explain why none of the other students were present, as surely it would deter more than one.

Weiss thought for a minute but ultimately, it was clear what they needed to do. She closed her eyes and sighed, long and heavy. "Okay." She said, reopening her eyes. "Here's what we'll do..."

But there was no red cloak before her any longer.

Weiss whipped around to find Ruby already sneaking toward the massive Grimm in a manner that was anything but surreptitious.

"_Ruby_!" Weiss did her best to scream quietly, making sure the fury made it into her voice. "Let's at _least_ come up with a plan first!"

But the brunette had already gone beyond earshot and Weiss felt her head begin to ache. _I can't believe this is happening_. She moaned to herself.

However, it certainly would not look good if she were to finish the exam alone; she did not fancy the thought of reporting how her partner had been eaten by some oversized fowl.

Weiss huffed, angry, confused, panicked... and just a little bit eager.

Drawing her rapier, she darted across the open clearing, grabbing Ruby's arm as she went and pulling her behind the cover of one of the broken columns. She would have to spare the lecture about running off without devising a plan for later, and Weiss pressed a finger to her lips for silence. Thankfully, Ruby nodded.

Weiss planned out her next trajectory, making sure the path would lead them to another sheltering of rock out of the beast's line of sight if it were to awake. She then conjured up another spell before grabbing Ruby's arm and pulling her along, successfully bringing them both closer to the sleeping Grimm.

The two girls looked about carefully, searching for anything that may have been considered a piece for them to retrieve, but when their gazes met again, both shook their heads. Ruby looked up at the colossal nest above their heads.

"You don't think they'd put them... in the nest, do you?" She whispered.

Weiss hardly liked the sound of that, but she could not refute the idea. She gave Ruby a look that silently told her they would be advancing one last time, but this time she lifted her chin up to the ruins. Ruby's eyes widened. _We're really going up?_ She seemed to ask silently.

_We don't have much of a choice. _The heiress's expression seemed to reply.

Ruby felt a bubble of eager anticipation rise within her chest as she prepared herself for the burst. Weiss used her glyphs this time to propel them up the side of the ruins with as little noise as possible.

They ended up standing on top of the old marble structure, mere feet away from the prickly nest. Weiss allowed herself a minute to be awestruck by the sheer size of the Grimm, close enough now to see the long, thick feathers that coated immense, rippling muscles.

She needed to peel her gaze away and focus on searching for the pieces, taking care to step cautiously, keeping a tight grip on Myrtenaster's handle.

Ruby, on the other hand, was much easier to distract, and her mouth hung open as she stared up at the bird. Weiss sent her a warning look, reminding her to concentrate on their objective and Ruby nodded back. She began to scour the crevices of the ruins while simultaneously taking in the sight of the forest from their vantage point.

But she was too late to realize when her foot dislodged a loose pebble, and she watched in horror as it tumbled down the side of the column. There was a distinct clinking sound as it rebounded off the rocks, and she felt Weiss's disbelieving glare boring into her back.

But Ruby could not tear her eyes away from the pebble as it dislodged a larger rock, and that one proceeded to loosen a larger one...

Seconds later, a loud sound echoed about the forest as the ruins shifted.

Then, like a blasting explosion, the rocks began to part and crumble, falling away to crush the forest below.

Weiss did not even have the chance to screech at her partner before she was drowned out by another deafening sound. The Nevermore raised its head and let out an almighty shriek, spreading its wings as it began to take flight, the nest of tress shattering around its feet.

Ruby was frantic as she attempted to find solid footing, but it was clear to her what they had to do in order to avoid plummeting to their deaths or being crushed by boulders. Reaching out without a second thought, she grabbed Weiss's sleeve and dragged her toward the claws of the beast.

"We've gotta grab on!" Ruby yelled.

"What?!" The heiress cried. "That is a _terrible_ idea!"

"There's no other way! Just do it!" Ruby screamed, thrusting Weiss forward. Making sure her partner could reach the claw, Ruby let her go before grabbing onto the other foot.

_I can't believe this is happening!_ She screamed in her mind as the Nevermore cawed again, lifting off into the air as the trees and rocks crushed the forest beneath in a terrifying avalanche.

Weiss was sure her heart had stopped, or at the very least she was deaf now, but she continued to keep a tight grasp on both Myrtenaster and the bird, feeling her stomach heave as they were lifted higher and higher. A violent flurry of feathers and wind blasted the girls' faces, not allowing their eyes to open any more than a squint.

Despite how ridiculous the past minute of her life had been, Ruby could not help but savor the exhilaration of the daringness of it all.

Weiss, however, had long-since gone pale, paler than usual, her voice being the only thing about her that seemed okay.

"Ruby!" She shouted. "I _told_ you this was a _terrible_ idea!"

"We're fine! Stop worrying!" Ruby called back.

"I am _so far _beyond worrying!"

"...In a good way?"

"In a _bad_ way! In a _very! Bad! Way!_"

"Well, why don't we _just_ jump?" Ruby suggested.

"What _are_ you, _insane_?" Weiss screeched.

Silence.

Silence.

_She did not._

Still silence.

"Oh, you _insufferable_ little red- _ugh_!"

Weiss watched as the red cloak of her reckless partner fluttered out behind Ruby as she fell.

Weiss gritted her teeth before resolving herself, and she let go of the Nevermore.

She choked as she failed to catch her breath past the rush of air that met her, but managed to cast a spell and use her rapier to form a glyph beneath her feet. Utilizing her Air Step, Weiss shot toward Ruby as she continued to fall, gaining even more momentum as gravity worked with her.

Just before Ruby ended up impaling herself onto the pointed tip of a small mountain at the edge of the Forest, Weiss reached her, grabbing a fist-full of red hood and yanking Ruby onto the circle with her. However, she did not have enough time to cast another spell, and she could only brace herself as she directed Ruby away from the rock.

Although she did manage to break her partner's fall a bit and thrust her to a grassier landing, Weiss let out a yelp as she crashed against the rocks, tumbling painfully down the side of the mountain as she felt the breath rip from her lungs. She rolled several times, her head colliding with hard stone every time until she slid to a halt on the grass beside her partner and lie still.

"Uhhh..." Ruby pushed herself up with a groan, shaking her head to clear it. Although her body was a bit sore from the impact of the fall, it was certainly not as bad as it could have been had Weiss not been there.

"Weiss...?" She grunted, seeking out her partner. She gasped when she saw the heiress lying on her side, her rapier several feet away. "Weiss!" Ruby scrambled over to her, panic rising in her throat. "Weiss? Weiss can you hear me?" She reached out to shake her shoulder gently, looking her over for any open wounds.

Ruby was relieved to see that the only red she found was embroidered into her partner's clothing, but it still worried her how long it was taking Weiss to open her eyes. _Oh gosh. Oh my gosh, this is all my fault. Weiss..._

She held her breath anxiously for a minute, shaking the heiress one more time.

At last, Weiss sputtered, her body jerking as she coughed up dust and grit and Ruby remembered to exhale.

"Oh thank god..." She removed her hand from her partner's shoulder. "Weiss? Weiss, are you okay?"

"Ruby-!" Weiss coughed harshly before she could finish, blinking her eyes open slowly as she pushed herself up into a sitting position. "Just... give me a- minute..." She panted.

As Weiss recovered her breath, Ruby fetched her rapier and returned it to her. Weiss slipped it back into place at her left hip as her ragged breathing finally slowed. "That..." She growled, her intense mist-blue gaze piercing Ruby's wavering one. "That was the most _dim-witted_, _reckless_ thing I have ever seen!"

She ended up putting herself in another coughing fit, but was determined to finish chewing the younger girl out. "This is what you get- when you jump into something-...without a proper plan!" She barked.

"I know, I know!" Ruby whimpered with an upturned face. "I'm really, _really_ sorry, Weiss! Are you okay?" She repeated.

"I'll manage..." She replied. "But if you _ever_ do something stupid like that again I swear I'll-"

"I get it!" Ruby cut her off. "I'm just glad you're all right." A small smile settled onto her lips and Weiss raised an eyebrow at her. The heiress felt her ears growing hot and quickly covered it up.

"Please. As if something like _that_ could've hurt me..." She huffed, beginning to dust off her attire, the lecture she had planned out forgotten in her feelings of mild flattery.

"A-And... Weiss?" Ruby's voice was quieter now. "About... what I was trying to say before..."

"What is it?" Weiss prompted.

"I'm really, really, _really_ sorry about what I said earlier." Ruby confessed, bowing her head shamefully. "You're not a big, stupid jerk. And I _don't_ hate you. I'm sorry."

There was a moment of silence as she waited for Weiss to continue yelling at her; she deserved it after everything that had happened.

She felt the heiress slide in beside her.

"Ruby!" She said.

"Y-Yes?!" The younger girl shrieked, straightening up to look at her.

Weiss reached forward and flicked her on the nose.

"You are _such_ a dunce." Weiss mumbled.

Ruby noticed the way her lips curled ever-so-slightly upward in amusement.

"Well..." Ruby cleared her throat. "Then I guess that's your problem now. I _am_ your partner, after all." She declared, getting to her feet. She offered Weiss her hand, and the heiress smirked as she accepted.

"I suppose that's a good thing," she puffed out her chest as Ruby helped her to her feet. "Considering there isn't another soul in the world who would be able to keep track of you."

Ruby grinned a contagious smile that Weiss kept for a brief moment as well before heading back out into the woods. "Come on. We've got to find the forest temple." She stated.

"Right behind you!" Ruby announced, hurrying to her side.

"...Hey, Ruby?"

"Yeah?" She tilted her head sideways as the heiress's eyes met hers again; Ruby made sure to remember the first time Weiss showed her a genuine smile.

"We make a great team, you and I."

* * *

**A/N: My notorious habit of 'ending stories with their titles' that has been dormant for months strikes back. Regardless, this was probably my favorite chapter to write, simply because it was these two, and I've been meaning to write this idea for a while.**

**Thanks for reading through until the end! I do hope you enjoyed!**

**Please review!**


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